Former hospital director expelled from party over dialysis disaster

By Viet Tuan September 30, 2019 | 05:27 am PT

Truong Quy Duong, former director of Hoa Binh General Hospital, is seen at the court in January, 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Pham Du.

A former director of the Hoa Binh General Hospital has been expelled from Vietnam’s Communist Party for his wrongdoings in the dialysis deaths of nine patients in 2017.

The Central Inspection Committee, the party’s top watchdog, announced Monday that it has removed Truong Quy Duong from the Party for "lacking responsibility and causing serious consequences."

The Hoa Binh Province court had in January this year jailed Duong for two years and a half. He filed an appeal against the decision, but the appeals court last June upheld the original sentence, saying he had to take full responsibility for this incident.

Hoa Binh hospital, 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Hanoi, received widespread media coverage after the fatal dialysis incident on May 29, 2017. A total of 18 patients underwent dialysis that day. After 45 minutes, some reported nausea, abdominal pain and shortness of breath. Eventually, nine died.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien pronounced the incident the "most serious" healthcare disaster in Vietnam in many years.

Hoa Binh police concluded that the water used in the dialysis treatment was the cause of the incident, as concentrations of fluoride in the water were up to 260 times above the permitted level.

Dr Hoang Cong Luong, a nephrologist at Hoa Binh General Hospital who was charged with "involuntary manslaughter" in this incident, had his jail term reduced from 42 to 30 months last June.