The government's surveillance system for infectious diseases has come under fire, with some doctors complaining the network of participating practices is too small and that collection of patient samples for laboratory testing is unreliable.
Some 40 private clinics, 67 government clinics and all public hospitals participate in the Centre for Health Protection's sentinal network, to provide warning of sudden changes in infection rates, by sending samples from patients, such as throat swabs, for laboratory testing.
The centre monitors infection rates of four illness categories - influenza, hand, foot and mouth disease, acute conjunctivitis and acute diarrhoeal diseases - and tests an average of 1,500 samples a month.
But the operator of a private clinic in Wong Tai Sin said none of its samples had been picked up for more than two weeks because a messenger had left his job, and that such a failure meant the centre's information was lacking and so its surveillance was faulty.
A nurse at Dr Choi Kin's clinic, Winnie Chow Mei-ying, said only one messenger, an employee of the Wang Tau Hom Jockey Club General Outpatient Clinic, was assigned to serve the Wong Tai Sin area.
'If the messenger falls ill, goes on a long holiday or resigns, no substitute is arranged from another district,' she said.