Auckland Hospital patients wrongly told they had sexually transmitted infections

The mistake was uncovered, after 'clinical questioning' of one result led staff to investigate. Photo / 123rf

By Rowan Quinn of RNZ

Twenty-five Auckland City Hospital patients have been wrongly told they have a sexually transmitted infection in the past three weeks – and six of them still do not know it was a mistake.

Health NZ/Te Whatu Ora said the false positive results were from tests carried out in its internal lab from May 23-June 4.

At least some of those affected were patients in the obstetrics and gynaecology service.

Hospital operations director Mike Shepherd said the mistake was uncovered, after “clinical questioning” of one result led staff to investigate.

That first false positive was identified on June 4. A total of four faulty batches was then discovered.

“We began contacting all affected patients by phone from 4 June and, to date, we have been able to contact directly all but six patients,” Shepherd said. “We continue to try and contact the remaining patients.”

The mistake was apparently because of potential contamination in the lab processing workflow. Only one type of test was affected.

“We are undertaking further investigation to identify the root cause and we have moved the test to different equipment until, our investigation is complete,” he said.

Shepherd acknowledged the distress that had been caused to some patients and said the hospital apologised to them.

No patients were wrongly told they did not have a sexually transmitted infection (STI).

-RNZ