Operators complained to the health minister yesterday that their newly designed chicken stalls looked like hospital wards.
York Chow Yat-ngok heard their comments during a nearly two-hour visit to the Tai Shing street market in Wong Tai Sin, his first to a wet market as secretary for health, welfare and food.
The new stalls have three parts: a display room filled with cages for 500 chickens; a slaughtering room; and a front desk where customers pick up chickens.
'This is just like a hospital ward where you have cages of chickens,' said one 30-year-veteran of the trade. 'Customers just look through a big window to choose which chickens they want to look at and I have to hold the chickens for them and talk to them via a walkie-talkie. This is just like visiting patients in isolated wards.
'They then get the chickens from the front desk next door just like getting medicine after seeing doctors.'
The stall operator also said ventilation was poor, and would trap germs in the display room.