China's Health Ministry on Tuesday ordered the country's hospitals, especially those treating A/H1N1 flu patients, to conduct thorough safety checks, a week after an A/H1N1 flu patient was accidentally electrocuted in her hospital ward bathroom in eastern China.

All medical institutions must check their medical instruments, pressure vessels, electricity, water and gas utilities, construction sites, and main gathering areas for hidden dangers, deputy health minister Yin Li said on a teleconference.

Stepped-up efforts must be made to ensure the safety of A/H1N1 influenza patients, he said, calling for a "comprehensive, in-depth, and thorough safety check at all medical institutions treating A/H1N1 patients immediately."

He also urged hospitals to keep closer watch on their intensive care units, newborn wards, operating rooms, infectious disease and hematological departments, and disinfectant supply units, to lower the possibility of in-hospital infections.

The order came one week after a woman A/H1N1 patient was accidentally electrocuted in her hospital ward bathroom in the No.1 People's Hospital of Xiaoshan District of the eastern Hangzhou City.

Lou Yihong, 34, was found dead in her ward lavatory by a nurse at 7:35 a.m. of July 1.

She was admitted on June 23 after being diagnosed with A/H1N1 flu, and had been recovering well as her temperature measured normal for a week before her death.

The hospital agreed to pay Lou's family 950,000 yuan (US$139,706) for her death.

Meanwhile, the State Food and Drug Administration has ordered a campaign, which started on July 6, to crack down on the production, sales and use of substandard medical instruments and medicines used to treat A/H1N1 influenza.

Results of the campaign would be made public, the administration said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2009)