According to Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong's medical services are among the finest in the world. That may become a matter of debate among the public following yesterday's revelations of yet more hospital blunders, and is a matter worthy of his administration's urgent attention.
Potential patients, who may already be nervous about having the wrong type of blood pumped into them, now have a fresh source of concern at the possibility of having the wrong organs removed. At this rate, fewer and fewer patients will be willing to be admitted to Queen Mary Hospital - where a disproportionately large number of the recent mistakes have occurred - and many will think twice about seeking treatment at any other government hospital.
As we said when the first blunder became known, some accidents are inevitable even in the best-maintained medical system. But the number which have now been revealed has transformed this from a matter of investigating individual incidents into a more general question of confidence in health care.
Now that the floodgates have been opened, further revelations are almost inevitable. With the issue in the public eye, patient who feels they have a grievance will begin ringing up newspapers and television stations to complain. Any doctors who are still concealing other blunders should realise that it is in their own interest to come clean before they become the subject of the next round of headlines.
The existing investigation is no longer adequate. It was set up to examine the circumstances surrounding the death of a car crash victim after a blood transfusion mix-up. What is now required is a more general inquiry into whether resource and staffing problems have contributed to the alarming number of errors. This should focus on Queen Mary Hospital, but also examine other hospitals since this is clearly a problem that stretches beyond any one institution.
It is questionable whether the Hospital Authority should conduct such an inquiry. As the body which has ultimate responsibility for monitoring hospital standards, it is an interested party given the scale of the errors. The time has come for the Government to step in. This is an ideal opportunity for the Tung administration to act decisively in a field which concerns the general population. By showing a resolution to stop the chain of blunders, the Government can best ensure that public confidence is restored.
