‘We should have done more’: NUH says sorry to pregnant woman who lost baby after 2-hour wait

The National University Hospital (NUH) has apologised for an incident where a pregnant woman recently lost her unborn child after waiting at its emergency department (ED) for two hours. 

In a statement on Wednesday (March 23) night, NUH chief executive Aymeric Lim said that the hospital should have done more to provide closer monitoring and care to the patient, as well as to update her of her condition and transfer. 

Patients in labour are typically admitted to the labour ward upon admission to the ED.

This patient was in early labour and while arrangement had been made to transfer her to the labour ward as soon as possible, the ward was full at that time, said Lim.

"She waited for two hours and this should not have been the case in this circumstance, and we are sorry," he added. 

On March 15, the patient was admitted to NUH's ED at 10.35pm for bleeding and she was attended to immediately. She was noted to be stable, said Lim, and her bleeding had subsided en route to the hospital.

Her vital signs were within normal parameters during the ED triage, he added.

"She indicated she was experiencing mild pain, and was assessed as 2/10 on the pain score by our nurses," said Lim.

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The ED was experiencing a high patient load at that time and the patient was placed next to the nursing station for closer visual monitoring, he said.

On the night of the incident, the hospital was managing three other expectant patients with Covid-19 in the ED and labour ward, according to the statement. 

In both the ED and labour wards, the hospital staff were kept very busy managing all these urgent cases.

"We will review the process of managing expectant patients who are admitted into ED when the labour ward is full so that such incidents do not happen again," Lim said.

When the patient was finally transferred to the labour ward, she was immediately attended to and cared for by a team led by two senior consultants, he added.

"An ultrasound scan showed the absence of a foetal heartbeat, caused by placental abruption, a rare and unpredictable pregnancy complication," he said.

Currently, all Covid-19-positive pregnant women over 36 weeks are admitted to the three public hospitals for care and delivery, said the hospital.

"Despite this added workload, we have a duty of care towards our patients," Lim said. "It has been challenging to maintain the hospital's high standards for care amidst the Covid-19 outbreak given the high numbers of patients admitting into the hospital for both emergent Covid-19 and non-Covid clinical conditions."

The NUH team and its clinical and nursing leads met the family on Wednesday (March 23) and had the opportunity to address their concerns directly.

"We will do our best to support them and ensure the patient's well-being," said Lim. "We are deeply saddened by the family's loss and will continue to provide care and support to them during this difficult period."

desmondng@asiaone.com