Inside Hong Kong’s public hospital crisis: temporary beds, angry patients, nurses and doctors stretched to breaking point
Hong Kong’s public hospitals are taking 90 per cent of the patients while employing just 40 per cent of the doctors: the South China Morning Post looks inside the public system that’s struggling to cope
Patients lying in hospital emergency wards waiting to be moved into a room. Temporary beds filling up the corridors and every available space. Nurses navigating congested accident and emergency units, bearing the brunt of anger from patients left waiting hours at times for treatment. Doctors so busy that consultations are limited to three minutes and a 30-hour shift is not uncommon.
This is not a portrait of an underfunded hospital in a developing economy, but instead is a typical scene this winter in Hong Kong, one of the world’s wealthiest cities, where public hospitals are being stretched to the limit during the peak demand period.
The root of the problem, according to experts, is Hong Kong’s overreliance on the publicly-funded sector when it comes to health care service. Public hospitals, heavily funded by the government, provide comprehensive and “near-free” service to local residents.
The sector is taking care of 90 per cent of the city’s patients, while employing only 40 per cent of the doctors; whereas the lucrative private sector is taking care of only 10 per cent of patients while employing 60 per cent of doctors.
The capacity of public hospitals has been struggling and pushed to the edge for a long time
Public hospitals, according to the Hospital Authority, operate even on normal days with a shortage of 700 nurses and 250 doctors. New recruits to the industry are routinely lost to the more lucrative and relaxed private sector.