The Hanoi hospital's microbiology department had cut 40 HIV test strips to perform tests on 80 people, a report by the city Department of Health on Tuesday said. But from the 80 strips it somehow produced 1,272 test results, it added.

The hospital said recently it tests for HIV by using Alere HIV - 1/2 test strips and verifies the results using the type of strips that were cut.

But since there were only 40 of the latter – which were cut into 80 between September and November – in stock and no more had been bought from Luc Tinh Company, the supplier, it is not known how the tests were done for the 1,000-odd people who came subsequently.

It is not known why the microbiology department would fake HIV test results either.

An investigation is ongoing.

The test strips do not guarantee accurate results if they are cut, Tran Thi Nhi Ha, deputy director of the Department of Health, said earlier this month, adding that the act is "completely against the procedures for medical examination and testing."

Three employees of the microbiology department, deputy head Chu Thi Loan who ordered the cutting, its head technician and the technician who carried out the act, have been suspended.

Saint Paul's is the largest hospital run by the health department.