As a hospital strike delays respiratory tests in Hanoi, technician Joyce Hew is still making sure a crowded ward has cleaner air. The filters keeping it running began as her improvised fix for equipment the hospital had written off.
Fiji has quarantined thousands of adult vaccine doses after a monitoring system displayed reassuring temperatures from fridges whose sensors had stopped reporting. The failure has exposed a FJD 6.8 million contract and a whistleblower reward scheme that officials say may now help recover public money.
A protest over delayed hospital pay became the largest medicine-return drive ever recorded by St Vincent’s health authorities, with residents bringing in 2.3 tonnes of unwanted drugs and packaging. Officials say the surprise haul could fill a disposal gap that has left families storing expired medicines at home.
A pipe damaged during maintenance shut down cooling at a Singapore research archive, pushing thousands of frozen medical samples above their safe storage range. Fourteen studies have paused while specialists assess what can still be used.
A public inquiry in Berlin says more than 86,000 people bought health-access packages promising faster scans, though the seller had no power to reserve appointments. Investigators estimate pensioners paid €17.2 million (about $20 million) for a service many mistook for an insurer-backed guarantee.
A takeover review has found that safety checks for backup-oxygen alarms at nine private hospitals in Catalonia were recorded as complete without evidence the alarms were tested. Health officials have restricted planned operations in seven theatres while fresh inspections are carried out; they say no patient harm has been confirmed.
A takeover of two Greek diagnostic networks has exposed thousands of imaging reports held in a queue that referring doctors were not routinely notified to check. A health inspectorate says 67 reports were marked urgent, with no recorded confirmation that a doctor had received them.
St Lucia’s health ministry has suspended an automated clinic-priority system after a delivery van struck a communications cabinet and knocked it offline at Port Azure General Hospital. Staff switching to manual triage found 21 patients had been assigned later appointments than their symptoms and medical histories warranted.
A recall of 2.6 million blood-sugar test strips has uncovered evidence that batches linked to a suspended production line kept reaching clinics across China. The manufacturer says the codes do not prove the strips came from that line, but hospital purchasing records and laboratory checks have sharpened scrutiny of the company’s quality controls.
A hospital competition to curb unnecessary antibiotics has produced a sharp fall in prescriptions but a worrying rise in patients returning with fever. Experts say the contest’s narrow scoring system may reward clinics for the wrong outcome.
Auckland’s new retirement-health clinic opened at the wrong address, sending 173 people to a shuttered medical suite before they found the door. Its founder, a retired South African nurse, then became the launch’s first patient after a blood-pressure check raised an alarm.
A public hearing in Heraklion has exposed a little-known network of filtered rooms that stayed open at some schools during Saharan dust alerts. The rooms gave pupils and staff a cleaner place to wait or sit exams, but the arrangement was missing from official closure tallies.