A CHILDREN'S cancer ward equipped with wall-to-wall toys, colour televisions, a playroom and an overnight room for parents has to turn four to five blood disease patients away every day because of a lack of nurses.
Only 26 out of the 40 beds in the Lady Pao Children's Cancer Centre at the Prince of Wales Hospital are used, according to Dr Patrick Yuen Man-pan, who heads the Chinese University's Department of Paediatrics.
The centre was only opened in 1991 and has an array of facilities - including a playroom laden with toys, a room for parents to relax in, a classroom, 10 isolation beds and a room where relatives can stay overnight.
But young blood disease patients are missing out on the shiny new ward and its facilities because of a lack of nurses to man the other 14 beds that are lying empty, Dr Yuen says.
'We can operate only 26 beds at the moment because of a shortage of nurses.
'We only have 18 - we need at least 22.
