Complaints body to discuss going public
A hospital complaints body is to today discuss plans to make its hearings and investigation findings public.
A member of the Public Complaints Committee, the Reverend Chu Yiu-ming, yesterday criticised the authority for failing to put into effect recommendations made by a special review committee in July last year.
Those recommendations included allowing committee members to meet the media to report findings on a regular basis, opening up selective sessions and setting up an 'observer scheme' to invite members of hospital governing committees and justices of the peace to join the committee.
Currently, all hearings are conducted behind closed doors.
The Public Doctors' Association had earlier asked it to open its hearing on Queen Mary Hospital surgeon Dr Tung Hiu-ming.
Dr Tung had talked on his mobile phone while carrying out an operation on taxi driver Gary Chung Chi-cheong.
There were about 1,800 complaints against public hospitals last year but only 38 cases were handled by the committee. In some cases, it overturned original findings by hospital management.
'I think the committee is still an effective channel for patients' complaints but we need to enhance our transparency. We do not want to be a rubber stamp,' Mr Chu said.
'We should show we are working in a fair and open way and the recommendations need to be implemented as soon as possible.
'We want to follow the practice of the Ombudsman and meet the media every three months to report findings.
'There are many unreasonable complaints by patients.
'Making those cases public is educational.' He said authority chief executive Dr William Ho Shui-wei had agreed during a meeting with committee members last month to implement the plans.
Lilian Lau Sau-han, a spokesman for the Patients' Rights Association, said patients should at least be allowed to attend hearings.
'It is bizarre that even the complainant is not allowed to know what the committee has discussed.' She said there should be an independent secretariat to help committee members collect information.
