MR Justice Bokhary's Final Report on the Lan Kwai Fong disaster is a good report.
I hope the Government will recognise its relevance to future accidents or disasters. All concerned authorities should contribute to make the recommendations in the final report work. Departments like the police, the fire services and Urban Services, as well as the Hospital Authority, should come up with reports on their respective areas as soon as possible.
As a doctor and legislator I would like to comment on two areas of this report.
Emergency and life-saving after a disaster. I am keen to see better co-ordination amongst all emergency agencies in rescue operations - police, fire services, hospitals, the Auxiliary Medical Service, the civil aid services, the St John's Ambulance Brigade and the Civil Aviation Department. Mr Bokhary is right. A joint working party involving all emergency agencies should be set up to consider how services could be improved.
Disaster teams should be set up in different regions of Hongkong, based in Accident and Emergency Departments of the major acute hospitals in Hongkong Island, Kowloon, New Territories East and New Territories West. Trained rescuers should arrive at the scene at the quickest possible time from within the region and set up a command unit. In the case of the Lan Kwai Fong disaster, a mobile command unit, which was called around 1 am (over an hour after the disaster occurred), only arrived at 1.35 am.
Regional rescue teams will minimise unnecessary delay.