Thomson Medical charged with breaching IVF rules

QX179R SG

IN October 2010, a Singaporean Chinese woman and her Caucasian permanent resident husband discovered that their baby's blood group did not match theirs.

The baby's complexion was also markedly different from theirs. More bad news was to follow when a DNA test showed that the baby born on Oct 1 2010 was not biologically related to the husband.

Thomson Medical Centre, which carried out the in-vitro fertilisation procedure in January, apologised when the incident was made public.

On Wednesday, the centre was charged in a district court for breaching the terms and conditions of its licence issued by the Ministry of Health (MOH) by failing to ensure that suitable procedures were followed in carrying out assisted reproduction treatment.

The charge does not make any reference to the baby mix-up, alleging that the centre had processed two semen specimens at the same workstation at the same time. Pipettes used at its fertility centre were also said to have been reused instead of being discarded, as is standard protocol.

The case was adjourned till Tuesday.

-- ST

the Bear SG

you'd think they were using turkey basters and other redneck implements in their "hospital"

QX179R SG

Thomson Medical fined for breaching licence

SINGAPORE: Thomson Medical has been fined the maximum S$20,000 after pleading guilty to breaching a condition of its Health Ministry licence some seven months after news broke about a sperm mix-up at the facility.

The medical centre failed to comply with a clause which requires the assisted reproduction (AR) director to ensure suitable practices are used in carrying out AR activities, required by its licence under the Private Hospitals and Medical Clinics Act.

Thomson Medical had processed at the same time two semen specimens inside one laminar hood - a working space where procedures are performed in a laboratory - on Jan 23 last year.

The centre also failed to discard, after each step of processing, instruments known as disposable pipettes, which are used to hold liquids.

Instead, the centre labelled the disposable pipettes and kept them for use in subsequent processing for the same patient.

Last November, it was reported that one of the centre's units, the Thomson Fertility Centre, had wrongly used another man's sperm to impregnate one of its patients.

The couple, a Singaporean Chinese woman and her Caucasian permanent-resident spouse, has decided to keep the child even though the husband's sperm was not the one used in the botched in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedure.

Following the mix-up, the Health Ministry imposed a suspension of all new AR activities at the centre in November last year.

-CNA/wk