Letters

Hospital chiefs are to blame for low morale

As a middle manager in a Hospital Authority hospital, I was upset by comments made on television by Undersecretary for Food and Health Gabriel Leung on the medical incidents at North District and Prince of Wales hospitals.

At Prince of Wales a nurse gave a baby a dose of antibiotics meant for another baby, and at North District Hospital a terminally ill breast cancer patient was mistakenly injected with morphine meant to be taken orally ('Wrong baby given drug; staff told to cut errors', August 30).

As a rule, the authority's head office has a policy of transparency regarding all medical incidents in public hospitals.

Staff, overwhelmed by their workload, are asked to report any incidents, from a lost pill to a missing patient. But the response is the same. The administrators appear at a press conference the next day and condemn the health care workers for their carelessness. As a doctor who has worked in the public service for more than two decades, I empathise with the low level of morale felt by colleagues toiling night and day, fighting a never-ending war against the H1N1 influenza outbreak.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen cuts civil servants' pay. However, it is unwise to cut the salaries of medical staff who are, in effect, like soldiers in a war zone. The government ignores the fact that there has been a brain drain, from the public to the private sector, of experienced nurses and doctors in recent years.

They are leaving for a number of reasons - a deteriorating working environment in public hospitals; little chance of promotion; a mounting workload, and the administrative arrogance of the authority's head office. What can the disgruntled health care workers do if their voices are not heard?