The board of directors 'regrets the oversight' of a delay in reporting Sars cases
A day after being admonished by the director of health for its slow response to the Sars outbreak, the private Baptist Hospital announced yesterday it had sacked its chief executive.
In an advertisement placed in the South China Morning Post today, the hospital says its chief executive, Tsang Chin-wah, 'had been relieved of his duties since May 26'. He has been replaced by Joseph Lee Chuen-kwun, a pathologist at the hospital who is a former dean of medicine at the Chinese University.
The hospital has been the focus of controversy for several weeks, as health authorities demanded a review of how it had failed to promptly notify the public and patients of a Sars outbreak at the hospital in April. Director of Health Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun said on Monday that the hospital had 'failed to take patients' rights seriously'.
Dr Chan warned the hospital to report all cases in future, pointing out that its licence was up for renewal at the end of the year.
Thirteen patients and medical workers were infected at the hospital before being transferred to Yan Chai Hospital. One patient died.
The wife of the dead patient is to seek legal aid tomorrow to sue the hospital. Democrat legislator Andrew Cheng Kar-foo said yesterday he would help her to discuss details of bringing the hospital to court for failing to report the 'real situation' to the health department and the failure to inform the patient's family of his illness, which they claimed had resulted in his death.
