Experts recommend a similar body to manage disease control in HK, as well as the hiring of communication experts
The newly formed Health Protection Agency in Britain could be a model for Hong Kong in controlling infectious diseases, according to the expert panel handling the Sars investigation.
Sources close to the investigation also said the panel would also probably advise the Hong Kong government on appointing experts with a knowledge of medicine and communications to handle public information during outbreaks.
The 11-member expert panel, appointed by Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa to look into the government's handling of the outbreak, completed its last round of consultations last week. It has met various groups, including doctors, patients, journalists and hospital administrators.
It is understood that the panel is concerned about poor intelligence obtained by the Department of Health on the outbreak in Guangdong, and inadequate infection-control measures at public hospitals, especially the Prince of Wales, where a discharged patient spread the virus to Amoy Gardens, leading to 42 deaths. The panel has also questioned the government's failure to evacuate Amoy Gardens promptly.
At 6am on March 31, the Department of Health imposed an isolation order on Block E at Amoy Gardens, where at the time 107 people had been admitted to hospital with Sars. Residents of all 264 flats in Block E were required to remain in their flats until midnight on April 9.
But on April 1, the department changed its mind and transferred them to government holiday camps for quarantine. 'The department was quick to realise that it was not a good decision to keep the residents at home. The Sars virus could still have existed at the housing estate at the time and it was unwise to lock up the residents there,' a source said.