Preliminary investigation report on liver C cluster in New Taipei Clinic released, the doctor in charge failed to fulfill his management responsibilities

The Antai Songhe Clinic in New Taipei City recently reported a hepatitis C cluster due to multiple deficiencies. The Medical Affairs Department of the Ministry of Health and Welfare recently released a preliminary investigation report and found that the clinic had nine deficiencies. Liu Yujing, deputy director of the Medical Affairs Department, said that in this case, the doctor in charge of the clinic did not fulfill his medical institution management responsibilities. Other details will be officially announced in the "Medical Accident Investigation Report".

The Department of Medical Affairs recently released a preliminary report on the medical accident investigation into the hepatitis C cluster infection incident at Antai Songhe Clinic in New Taipei City. The report pointed out that two family members living together in Banqiao District, New Taipei City, were diagnosed with hepatitis C, and an epidemic investigation found that the two people had gone to Antai Songhe Clinic for nutritional injections.

In addition, 9 people diagnosed with acute hepatitis C in New Taipei City from 2025 to 2026 had a history of injection exposure at this clinic, and the viral nucleic acid sequence similarity was as high as 99.7% to 100%, indicating a high degree of parentage.

The CDC and the New Taipei City Government Health Bureau conducted inspections at the Antai Songhe Clinic without warning on August 20 and 26 this year respectively, and found that the clinic had a number of deficiencies, including failure to implement hand hygiene before and after contact with patients, needles left on the rubber stoppers of medicine bottles (including intravenous drips), reuse of medicines, and no waste sharps collection bins in the clinic.

The report pointed out that after a preliminary investigation of this incident, Antai Songhe Clinic had systemic problems. The doctor in charge was employed but was not responsible for the operation of the clinic and had no substantial management. The medical staff had insufficient understanding of the concepts of infection control and aseptic operation. The New Taipei City Government Health Bureau will stop all operations of the clinic and review it until it is qualified. Other details of the incident will be officially announced in the "Medical Accident Investigation Report".

Liu Yujing said that the "Medical Law" stipulates that medical institutions should have a responsible physician who is responsible for supervising the medical business of the institution. The expert team went to the clinic on September 9 to conduct an on-site investigation and wrote an investigation report based on the actual situation. However, the doctor in charge of the clinic did not assume the responsibility for the management of the medical institution, and did not clearly understand that he should fulfill his responsibilities. There was a case of shirk.

However, Liu Yujing emphasized that in the preliminary investigation report, the responsible doctor failed to implement the required matters, and the Medical Department required and punished it in accordance with regulations. What is currently announced is only a preliminary report. The final report is expected to be completed by the end of November to clarify the systemic reasons and continue to track it 6 months after the report is released. The clinic is still closed. It can only resume operations after confirming that there are no problems with improvements.