Secretary for Food & Health Dr York Chow is concerned about the misidentification of two babies at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, saying such an incident should not have occurred.

He said today he has asked the Hospital Authority to investigate the case immediately and submit a report to the bureau.

"If there is any negligence or mistakes involved, the authority should explain to the public as soon as possible and take improvement measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents," he said.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital yesterday announced the unusual incident involving two baby girls born about an hour apart at dawn on August 7.

Based on the ward staff's preliminary investigation and the babies' footprints, it was believed the two babies' identities had been exchanged.

On August 8, one of the girls' mothers in the postnatal ward found her daughter's identification bracelet missing from her wrist, and found another baby's identification bracelet in her baby's cot. Both mothers and babies were still hospitalised.

The hospital said staff in the labour room had followed procedures, presenting the babies to their mothers to confirm their gender and other characteristics. Afterwards, the staff put the handwritten identification bracelets on the babies' wrists and sent them separately to the postnatal ward for further treatment.

The hospital has set up a panel to conduct an investigation, and suspects the postnatal ward staff might not have accurately checked the babies' identities and wrongly put on the two-dimensional barcode identification bands on the babies' ankles.

The hospital has met with the babies' parents to explain the incident and express apologies.

The babies' identifications have been confirmed by blood and DNA tests and rectified. Psychological counseling has been arranged for the parents.

Remedial measures in place

The hospital is closely monitoring the concerned staff's performance, and will decide whether there is a basis to consider disciplinary action based on the investigation report and the Hospital Authority's human resources policies.

Immediate remedial measures put in place by the hospital include putting the identification bracelets on babies' legs rather than wrists in front of their mothers to prevent them from falling off. Staff must also sign the bracelets.

In a press briefing today, Hospital Authority Kowloon Central Cluster head Hung Chi-tim stressed that the authority had not deliberately delayed the disclosure of the incident and had no intention of covering it up. It had to respect the parents' privacy, he said.