Hospital baby care units hit by shortages
HONG KONG'S flagship medical unit for sick babies is bending hospital rules to cope with staff shortages, overcrowded wards and rising drop-out rates among stressed trainee doctors.
Paediatric specialists caring for critically ill and premature babies at Queen Mary and Tsan Yuk hospitals said they had too little manpower and space to cope with the numbers of sick infants.
Student nurses, unqualified to work in intensive care units, were rostered on the wards because of a shortage of trained staff, while doctors worked regular 36-hour shifts.
Queen Mary's paediatric head, Professor Yeung Chap-yung, revealed the problems after Hospital Authority chief executive, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, and Lavender Patten left a hospital party for families of premature babies yesterday.
The Queen Mary receives about 300 referrals a year from private and public hospitals. It is the main centre for delivering and treating premature babies.
''We don't have enough nurses, we don't have enough doctors, we don't even have enough paramedical support,'' Professor Yeung said.
''Two days ago, our intensive care unit was so full that even though we had a critically ill child in the general ward, we couldn't take him up to it because conditions would be overstretched.'' Medical staff redoubled their workload to accept the sick child, accepting 15 seriously ill infants in a ward designed for 11.
''Under normal circumstances, in overseas centres they have inhalation therapists. We don't have that category in Hong Kong at all,'' Professor Yeung said.
''We don't even have equipment technologists, so we have to train nurses to do that job.'' Trainee doctors are working 36-hour shifts once or twice a week. Some drop out of the three-year intensive care unit posting after just one year.
Paediatrician Dr Barbara Lam said necessity forced the rostering of student nurses on the unit. ''Strictly speaking, we should not have student nurses but it's better than having no manpower.'' Doctors were rostered to be on call overnight once every three to four days.
Dr Lam said: ''If you're on call, you really don't have time to sleep. They also have to work daytime hours of 7.30 am to 7 pm.'' Dr Yeoh described the quality of the unit's medical service as ''the best in Asia'' as he met parents of premature children yesterday.
Queen Mary Hospital held its first Premature Babies Reunion Party yesterday, uniting former patients aged five months to 13 years.
The unit was saving babies born at 24 weeks and weighing just 560 grams, who would previously have been classified as abortions, doctors said.
The unit's 90 per cent survival rate for babies born before 28 weeks and weighing under one kilogram was among the world's best, said Professor Yeung.
