Patients in public hospitals have been forced to sleep on camp beds in corridors as wards have overflowed from a surge in admissions in the past few weeks.
The Hospital Authority has held meetings with the hospitals to address the problem and has transferred patients to less crowded institutions.
Among those having to set up camp beds in ward hallways, the Kwong Wah, United Christian and Prince of Wales hospitals were worst hit, one source said.
'Sometimes the hospital staff cannot squeeze in any more camp beds,' he said.
Kwong Wah has received about 700 patients a day, compared to the usual 500 seeking treatment from the accident and emergency unit, while Prince of Wales' patient load jumped to 900 from 600.
A doctor at Kwong Wah said the massive increase could be due to the weather.
'A lot of the patients, many of them women and the elderly, have been suffering from fever,' he said, adding that the hospital's renovation work had reduced the number of beds by one-third to about 1,000.