Wake Up, Singapore apologises for publishing false claims against KKH, says it was lied to over miscarriage case

SINGAPORE — Alternative news website Wake Up, Singapore has apologised to KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) after it uploaded false allegations against the hospital.

In a social media post on Friday (March 25), they said that they were "fed lies at every turn" and that the call logs, invoices and correspondence with the complainant "may have all been doctored".

The alternative news website said that they had acted in "good faith" when it received the tip-off from the alleged patient — whose identity has not been revealed — by verifying her account and asking for proof of her claims.

When they found out KKH filed a police report with regards to the allegations, they informed the woman who had contacted them with her claims and she later revealed to them that the information was false.

Professor Alex Sia, chief executive officer of KKH, said in a media statement on March 25 that the hospital made a police report over the allegations, which he said were "incorrect". 

"There are discrepancies between the story and the bill information shared online. We can definitively say that there is no such scenario," he added.  

On March 23, a social media post uploaded by Wake Up, Singapore detailed an expectant mother's alleged first-hand account of miscarrying her child after waiting four hours at KKH's urgent obstetrics and gynaecology centre. 

They also published a document purporting to be a copy of the hospital bill, which stated that the hospital visit took place on Feb 28. 

Two days later, the site published another social media post with screenshots of alleged calls from KKH to the patient, claiming that the hospital had been in contact with her on March 24.

In its apology on Friday evening, Wake Up, Singapore uploaded a screenshot of messages from the woman where she apologised to the site and said that she sent the misinformation in the "heat of the moment".

Wake Up, Singapore said: "It was never our intention to besmirch anyone or spread falsehoods.

"We unreservedly apologise to KKH and to all our readers. We will co-operate fully with the authorities and investigations."

A search on the national internet registry for Singapore shows that the Wake Up, Singapore domain name is registered under Mr Xu Yuanchen, who is better known as Mr Terry Xu, while Mr Ariffin Sha is listed as the "administrative contact".

Mr Xu was chief editor of the now-defunct socio-political website The Online Citizen while Mr Ariffin is a legal trainee and former assistant secretary-general of Singapore People's Party.