Hospital wrongly told woman she had miscarried

THE health minister has ordered an investigation into a complaint that doctors at a state hospital had wrongly diagnosed a woman as having had a miscarriage, it emerged yesterday.

Health Minister Androulla Agrotou said there would be disciplinary action if it was determined beyond any doubt that offences had been committed in this and two other unrelated cases currently under investigation.

Twenty-six-year-old Maria Stylianou, in her eighth week of pregnancy, lodged a complaint after she was told by doctors at the Makarios hospital on Tuesday

that she had had a miscarriage.

“She (the doctor) was absolute about what she was saying,” Stylianou told Sigma television. “She announced it was a miscarriage.”

Stylianou said she left the hospital distraught but was later convinced to visit a private gynaecologist who ascertained there was nothing wrong with the embryo.

Agrotou said yesterday she had ordered an investigation into the case, which must be completed by the end of this month.

The minister said she spoke to the woman “to express her sympathy for the inconvenience she went through and to clarify certain things.”

Agrotou said two other investigations were underway about complaints regarding the Makarios hospital Gynaecology and Obstetrics Clinic.

The minister declined to say whether the two complaints concerned the same doctor.

Asked about the delay in investigating the two cases, reported last summer, the minister said she gave instruction for the process to be expedited.

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