HKETO Berlin Sponsors Berlin CityCup Dragon Boat Races, Promoting Cultural Exchanges

HKETO Berlin sponsors Berlin CityCup dragon boat races

The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Berlin (HKETO Berlin) sponsored the 27th Berlin CityCup dragon boat races held on July 4 (Berlin time).

The Acting Director of HKETO Berlin, Mr Billy Leung, said that the race gathered paddlers from different cultural backgrounds. HKETO Berlin staff and Hong Kong people in Germany formed a team, the “Hong Kong Waverunners”, with German paddlers, which serves as an example of fostering friendly people-to-people exchanges between Hong Kong and Germany.

Mr Leung also highlighted that Hong Kong would host the next edition of International Dragon Boat Federation World Dragon Boat Racing Championships. As an attractive tourist destination with a variety of international cultural and sports mega events taking place throughout the year, Hong Kong offers visitors a multitude of enchanting experiences.

To showcase Hong Kong’s unique advantages and dynamic developments, HKETO Berlin set up a booth to promote work and study opportunities in Hong Kong. Visitors were introduced to the “Study in Hong Kong” brand, talent attraction schemes, and mega events to be held in Hong Kong during the second half of the year.

About HKETO Berlin

HKETO Berlin is the official representative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government in commercial relations and other economic and trade matters in Germany as well as Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Switzerland.

DH investigates Serious Untoward Event involving day procedure centre “Heal Fertility Limited” and requests that it stop accepting new cases for reproductive technology procedures

The Department of Health (DH) announced today (July 7) that it had received a notification from the Council on Human Reproductive Technology (Council) regarding a day procedure centre (DPC), “Heal Fertility Limited”, in Central that holds a licence from the Council to provide reproductive technology procedures. The DPC has made errors when sending embryo biopsy specimens for testing. The incident constitutes a Serious Untoward Event stipulated in the Code of Practice for Day Procedure Centres (Code of Practice) of the Private Healthcare Facilities Ordinance (Cap. 633) (the Ordinance). The DPC did not report the incident to the DH within 24 hours upon identification, as required. Following a preliminary investigation, the DH has directed the DPC to implement a series of corrective and improvement measures, including the immediate suspension of accepting new cases for reproductive technology procedures.

The concerned DPC is located in One Chinachem Central, 22 Des Voeux Road, Central. The incident involved two couples preparing to undergo reproductive technology procedures. The embryo biopsy specimens they provided for testing were suspected to be replaced by other embryo biopsy specimens. The testing centre discovered the error during the genetic testing process and coordinated with the DPC to repeat the sampling and testing.

The DPC had earlier reported the incident to the Council, the Council notified the DH on the evening of July 3 following an investigation. The DH immediately sent staff to the DPC on the morning of July 4 to conduct an inspection and investigation, and to thoroughly review the relevant workflows and safety measures according to the Ordinance. The investigation revealed that the incident involved misidentification of the test specimens, which constitutes a Serious Untoward Event under the Code of Practice. However, the DPC did not report the incident to the DH within 24 hours upon identification, which constituted a non-compliance to the Code of Practice. According to information provided by the DPC, genetic testing subsequently confirmed that the two couples were biologically related to the embryos stored at the DPC, indicating that the embryos themselves had not been mixed up. The incident involved an error with the biopsy specimens sent for testing, and there is currently no evidence to suggest that any embryos were mixed up or incorrectly implanted.

In view of the preliminary investigation findings, human factors may be involved. To ensure public safety, the DH issued a requirement notice to the DPC on July 6 and required the DPC to take the following measures:

• Immediately stop accepting new cases for reproductive technology procedures until the completion of investigation and full implementation of remedial safeguards;
• Proactively notify persons who have been receiving reproductive technology procedures in the DPC about the incident and provide appropriate medical advice and/or confirmatory testing as necessary;
• Make suitable arrangements so that affected persons do not incur additional costs or suffer financial loss in connection with any counselling, confirmatory testing, or other follow-up actions; and
• Submit an investigation report within four weeks on the root cause analysis, immediate corrective actions taken and the necessary long-term improvement measures.

The DH has provided the Council with the preliminary findings of its investigation. The DH will continue to take the necessary follow-up actions in accordance with the Ordinance and maintain close liaison with the Council to safeguard public safety.