WHY OUR OVERSTRETCHED HOSPITALS INVITE DISASTER
I have been a patient at various times during the last 18 months in Queen Mary Hospital and in Tung Wah Hospital in Western. I am currently a patient in Queen Mary and in the past week was a patient for one day in Tung Wah.
The medical services and attention that I have received from all the staff at both hospitals have been excellent and I have noted staff working 18 hours a day on occasion to care for patients.
However, there are health concerns, particularly in respect to the Sars outbreak, and social problems at these facilities, due variously to design, construction workmanship and insufficient staff.
The toilets and showers and washing facilities are in many cases poorly designed and maintained and at Tung Wah hospital not properly cleaned, due to insufficient staff.
I was in a ward of over 50 male patients and the toilet facilities for them were inadequately cleaned, due to their design and workmanship, once every 20 hours. Other cleaning was unfortunately lacking or very poor.
Queen Mary Hospital was far better.
We have had this Hong Kong cleanup day, but Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, the Chief Secretary and the Secretary for Health should be going to look at the basic facilities in our hospitals - before they are sanitised - to see for themselves and then do something about it urgently. They are a disaster waiting to happen.
There is also another major social problem, which affects the wellbeing of patients, and that is that they are not allowed any visitors, even wife or husband, due to the Sars outbreak. Under such conditions, it is like being a prisoner, for me solitary confinement, which I am not prepared to accept.
I saw one 93-year-old man moved once within the hospital and then transferred to Tung Wah hospital, all within 30 hours. He had to pack and unpack all his personal belongings himself, without help. Most of the patients are elderly and their close relatives often carry out important duties for them to relieve their pain and suffering and make their life slightly easier.
Without these visits the patients suffer even more.
Medical and other hospital staff come and go, the border to China is open, the airport is open, the MTR, KCR and the buses operate, but the 'prisoners' in the hospitals are not allowed even one visitor. These elderly patients need more help and care and they need it now.
LESLIE GRAHAM HENDRY, Mid-Levels
