Administration still has some healing to do
As comprehensive and insightful as it is, the report by the Sars Expert Committee into the deadly outbreak falls far short of healing the wounds of a traumatised society.
While the 46 recommendations by the 11-member panel may help lay down a road map to remedy the defects in the public health system, the damage caused by the Sars outbreak to the hearts and minds of the people will take time to heal.
The emotive outbursts of some family members of Sars victims in radio phone-in programmes on Friday was a quick reminder of their grievances over the government's handling, or mishandling of the crisis.
One woman caller, with her voice shaking, asked panel member Professor Rosie Young Tse-tse: 'What has the government done for us?'
The caller went on: 'Have they made a follow-up [to our case]. They don't even express a word of sympathy to us.
'With the completion of the review, they put a full stop to the outbreak. We are all mired in the abyss.'
This feeling of helplessness, frustration and fury has been exacerbated by the emphasis of the expert committee and the government on the importance of beefing up the health system.
Unintentional though it may be, this repeated emphasis by the expert panel and health officials gives an impression to the families of the victims and the public that they are insensitive to the community mood, and that all they want is for mistakes by officials to be forgiven and forgotten.
The catchwords of Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, health officials and the experts - look forward and get the system right - have been heard from a negative perspective.
Most people would like to forgive and forget, and they have no dispute with the recommendations by the panel to strengthen the public health system.
But they are yet to be convinced that the government and the health authorities have learned from the bitter experience of the Sars crisis.
The wide gap between the hearts and minds of the government and the people was at the heart of the storm of controversy over the insistence by Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong on March 14 that there was no community outbreak of Sars.
As the expert committee has found, what Dr Yeoh said at that time might have been technically correct, and genuinely intended to allay public panic.
Nonetheless, people were shocked by the spread of the disease shortly after Dr Yeoh's assurance and felt furious over his failure to put the health hazard in the right perspective.
The controversy surrounding the remarks by the health minister is an example of what the expert committee describes as 'system failures in the response to the epidemic, particularly in the early phase'.
That health officials failed to understand the position of people engulfed by fear of an unknown disease comes down to mindset, values and approach, rather than defects in the system.
In its report, the expert committee admitted that 'communicating risk to the public is never easy, particularly in the face of an overwhelming crisis'.
As the Sars experience showed, it was critically important for the government to build trust and engage the whole community in battling a major crisis.
Not surprisingly, pressure has been building for Dr Yeoh to stand down and take the blame for the chaos in handling Sars, as a show of a responsive and accountable administration.
It is no easy task to put in place a more effective health system through an overhaul of existing institutions.
Repairing the damage in the hearts of people will be equally, if not more, arduous. But it will be important if the government is to be prepared for another Sars attack.
