The Hospital Authority (HA) in Hong Kong has said it is concerned about the suspected resale of medication prescribed by a public hospital on online retail platform HKTVmall. Local media reported on Monday that the HA had vowed to follow up on a complaint by a pregnant woman concerning a bottle of lactulose she purchased from HKTVmall in July last year. The customer said the product came with a prescription label from the Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital and showed the name of another individual.
According to screenshots widely circulated online, the customer left a one-star review on the HKTVmall site and complained that the bottle of laxative she received was prescribed to a patient surnamed Wong. “Of course this person is not me. It is hard to imagine HKTVmall would allow suppliers to [provide this],” the customer wrote on the website on July 9, 2023.
The customer added she had purchased lactulose from HKTVmall before and expressed concerns over the source of the product and its potential impact on her and her infant. In response to a customer’s enquiry on Facebook, HKTVmall said on Tuesday that the pregnant woman had received the product on May 29 last year and filed a report to the platform’s customer service portal on July 9. Upon HKTVmall’s request for information, the merchant said it was unable to provide security camera footage or photos of the product sent because it was delivered more than a month ago.
HKTVmall later recalled the product on July 25 and offere.