SINGAPORE — An online rumour that the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) is charging new parents S$15 for the use of its new Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system — to make sure that they take the right baby home — is “factually incorrect”, the hospital said yesterday.

“KKH does not have an additional charge to patients for the use of this system. The Lianhe Wanbao report referred to by these (online) sites clearly mentions that KKH does not charge patients,” said Ms Audrey Lau, the hospital’s Director (Corporate Development Division).

She added that KKH takes “a very serious view of this misinformation” and has contacted the entities involved in publishing it.

An Internet search at 4pm yesterday showed that the rumour was published on websites such as New Nation and The Alternative View, and reposted on forums such as HardwareZone, Sammyboy, KiasuParents, as well as AsiaOne.

New Nation and The Real Singapore — which did not specify KKH in its report but used the term “SG hospitals” — told TODAY at around 6pm that they had received word from KKH and would update their reports with its response.

TODAY understands that the hospital, which did not issue a deadline for the error to be corrected, does not have plans to take further action against these sites.

When asked if it had the option to sue, lawyer S Selvaraj said it was more appropriate to lodge a police report. “I don’t think it’s defamatory. This is just wrong information.”

Under the RFID system, the mother, baby and cot will be given matching tags. If a baby is placed into the wrong cot or passed to the wrong mother, an alarm will sound, whereas a chime is emitted when the infant is matched to the correct cot or mother.

Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen had in August warned about the spreading of false information online. He had noted that “in a tense and volatile situation, DRUMS (Distortions, Rumours, Untruths, Misinformation and Smears) can spread very far and wide and even cause confusion and chaos”.

Kok Xing Hui