CAMP beds are still a rare sight in Hong Kong's public hospitals despite their reappearance in the wards of Kwong Wah Hospital, the Hospital Authority said.
Hospital Authority deputy director Dr Lawrence Lai Fook-ming said the authority was concerned about the situation at the hospital, but was confident the camp beds would be temporary.
He added: 'With a major renovation project it is possible there will be some problems in the initial stages, but we will do our best to make sure the situation is contained.
'In previous years the use of camp beds was significant in our hospitals, but in the past two years they have been used only infrequently.' On Tuesday, the chief executive of Kwong Wah Hospital, Dr Kay Chiu-shan, claimed the use of camp beds was unavoidable as the start of the renovation project had coincided with an unexpected rise in admissions through the hospital's casualty department.
Other hospitals undergoing renovation have only been able to avoid the use of camp beds by cutting the number of beds and using an overflow system where patients are put in wards which are not of the appropriate speciality.
