Hanoi hospital suspected of faking thousands of HIV test results

Staff of Saint Paul General Hospital in Hanoi, which recently made headlines for splitting HIV test strips in halves, is suspected to have faked thousands of HIV test results, Zing.vn reported.

The hospital's Microbiology Department had split 40 HIV test strips to perform tests on 80 blood samples, a report by the municipal Department of Health on December 17 said. However, from the 80 strips it produced about 1,272 test results.

Saint Paul General Hospital in Hanoi. Photo: VTC News

But since there were only 40 test strips – which were cut into 80 between September and November – in stock and no more were bought from the supplier, it is not known how the hospital could conduct the tests on more than one thousand people with 80 test strips.
The reason why the Microbiology Department allegedly fake HIV test results remain unknown and an investigation is underway to find it out.
The test strips do not guarantee accurate results if they are cut, Tran Thi Nhi Ha, deputy director of the Hanoi Department of Health, said earlier this month, adding that the act is "completely against the procedures for medical examination and testing."
Currently, three employees of the microbiology department, namely its deputy head who ordered the cutting, the head technician and the technician who carried out the act, have been suspended.
Earlier, a report by national broadcaster VTV on December 9 showed that some staffers of the hospital's Department of Microbiology had cut HIV and hepatitis B test strips into halves so that one single-use test strip could be used twice. This fraudulent act could lead to misdiagnosis and does not follow directions for use given by its manufacturer.
On December 10, Director of the hospital Nguyen Dinh Hung said that only 40 HIV test strips were cut into two halves by diagnostic staff at Saint Paul Hospital over the past three months.
Hung denied the act was fraudulent and said it was only an experiment by the Department of Microbiology. The experiment was not reported to the hospital's managerial board, he added.
The municipal Department of Health has asked Saint Paul Hospital to review the hospital's chemical inventory books and records of trial tests to identify the procedure violations.
An HIV test kit with 100 test strips costs VND3 million (US$129). Saint Paul is the largest hospital run by the Hanoi’s Health Department.