Hospital apologizes for expired ointment

THE Visayas Community Medical Center (VCMC) has apologized to the family whose newborn baby boy sustained rashes after he was allegedly given expired ointment  by the hospital staff more than a month ago.

Dr. Eli Belarmino, VCMC’s medical director, said that the hospital management will send an apology letter to the complainant.

“We accept the responsibility and we are very sorry for the oversight.  It is very unfortunate,” Dr. Belarmino told the reporters.

However, he said that being sorry does not mean they are at fault.

“We are asking an apology because of oversight. That’s it. It was unintentional (incident) and we are not washing out hand,” Belarmino added.

Last August 5, Belarmino met with the baby’s parents who personally gave their letter of complaint.

Belarmino said he has not seen the two boxes of ointment that the parents claimed were expired.

“In my opinion, if expired then it is not effective anymore. Rashes are normal for newborn babies,” Belarmino said.

The mother said she started using the ointment two weeks after she gave birth on June 28.  She used it for more than a month.

She found out when she checked the boxes that one expired  in October 2013 and the other one in February 2015.

Last Friday, Belarmino met with the two nurses who allegedly gave the hygiene kits to the mother containing  baby products and the  ointment.

The two did not check the package.

“I told them that there should have been instructions given to the parents before giving the kit. It (checking) was taken for granted and that was wrong,” he added.

It was also found by the management that the kits given to the parents should have been disposed as these were in their stockroom for quite sometime already.

“I have already given instructions that those kits will not be given to patients anymore,” he added.