Hospital response inadequate: report

Combination of factors blamed in death of man outside Caritas Medical Centre

A catalogue of hospital mis-steps - combined with a series of unfortunate circumstances on the fateful Saturday afternoon - claimed the life of a 56-year-old logistics company owner at Caritas Medical Centre last month, according to an investigation report released yesterday.

First the van bringing Yeung Tak-cheung to the hospital missed the turn to the accident and emergency department, arriving at a non-clinical department. Then staff did not treat the case with sufficient urgency, leading to delays in treatment.

The 14-page bilingual report, prepared by the hospital's chief executive, Ma Hok-cheung, chronicled what went wrong in the hospital's response to the December 20 medical emergency just outside one of its buildings, and contained recommendations on five areas to prevent a recurrence.

Dr Ma refused to resign last night despite findings in the report that the hospital's response on several fronts had been inadequate.

Yeung, who had suffered a heart attack, was found 'without pulse' by a passing surgeon two minutes after arriving unconscious in his own company van, driven by a colleague and accompanied by his son, which stopped at the hospital's Wai Ming Block on Wing Hong Street.

Despite his being right outside the hospital, the first rescuers to arrive were from the Fire Services Department, 10 minutes after Yeung was brought to the building's entrance.