Hong Kong fertility clinics should be required to report serious incidents within 24 hours to the regulator for in vitro fertilisation (IVF), lawmakers have said, following a specimens mix-up at a centre that went undisclosed for weeks.
They urged the government on Wednesday to close the regulatory gap, a day after it emerged that Heal Fertility in Central had mishandled embryo biopsy specimens from two patients and failed to promptly report the incident.
Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said on Wednesday that the delayed reporting was not ideal, adding the government would consider imposing a time limit for making such disclosures after completing a full investigation into the incident.
The Council on Human Reproductive Technology said on Tuesday that it had ordered the private clinic to suspend 14 of its 17 services after discovering that embryo biopsy specimens sent for pre-implantation genetic testing belonged to the wrong patients.
Heal Fertility opened in 2023 and is a member of Heal Medical Group, a subsidiary of the New Frontier Group co-founded by former financial secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung and Carl Wu, a former managing director at Blackstone.
Lo said the incident was more than an ordinary medical mistake, as it involved the swapping and replacing embryo biopsy specimens, something that could not be explained by simple procedural errors. The Department of Health has referred the case to police.
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