Sars: Prince of Wales Hospital must apologise

The report of the Legco Select Committee on Sars has basically confirmed the conclusions of a similar investigation by the Hospital Authority last year, in that poor infection control at the Prince of Wales Hospital and the reopening of Ward 8A were major contributing factors to the catastrophic community outbreak.

It is obvious that the responsibility for these serious blunders lie squarely with the management of Prince of Wales, as well as the medical faculty of the Chinese University, whose professors are entrusted with the task of administering their teaching hospital. These two institutions should jointly offer a public apology to the people of Hong Kong, as almost all others implicated, be they government officials or the heads of the Hospital Authority, have already apologised for their errors and inadequacies.

Although such an apology cannot directly alleviate the pain and suffering of those who have succumbed to Sars, it would be utterly ghoulish of these institutions to withhold it now. Otherwise, not only will people have less confidence in the medical profession, I also doubt if those involved will be fit models for the next generation of medical practitioners.

CALVIN LEE, Causeway Bay

Give bonus to victims

Cast your mind back to February of this year. There was a huge outcry when members of senior management of the Hospital Authority were paid a total bonus of $12.6 million 'for doing a good job' last year.