Doctors suffering from heavy workloads are urging the government to postpone new hospital projects and the expansion of medical services amid a severe staff shortage. They are also demanding long-term manpower planning and standard work hours instead of just extra money for night shifts. Hospital Authority chief executive Dr Leung Pak-yin met department heads last night to discuss the staffing crisis. Unions have threatened to take industrial action if the authority fails to find a solution by March 18. Leung spent a few hours on night shift early yesterday at Caritas Medical Centre. Frontline staff have been criticising the authority for aggressive expansion of medical services at the expense of working conditions. Projects in the pipeline include the 180-bed North Lantau Hospital in Tung Chung, to be completed by December next year; the 468-bed Centre of Excellence in Paediatrics to be opened in the Kai Tak development area by 2016; a public hospital in Tin Shui Wai, also by 2016; and a new centre of excellence in neurology. The Food and Health Bureau will open four sites for new private hospitals later this year. There are also various expansion plans at individual hospitals to meet growing local demand. Doctors fear the projects will put further stress on medical staff. The head of obstetrics and gynaecology at Sha Tin's Prince of Wales Hospital, Dr Cheung Tak-hong, said the authority should carefully assess staffing in the next few years before opening new hospitals or services. Cheung, also chairman of the authority's co-ordinating committee for his specialty, objects to the authority's decision to open new maternity services at Tseung Kwan O Hospital next year while the specialty is suffering a high turnover of doctors. 'At our hospitals, we are 10 per cent down in our doctor manpower,' he said. 'The new services [at Tseung Kwan O Hospital] will certainly put stress on other hospitals because it has to draw specialists and midwives from others to fill the new posts. As a result, the quality of services will be at risk. The residents in Tseung Kwan O will enjoy faster service, but the cost is a service of poorer quality. It is not good for the public.' Dr Joseph Lui Cho-ze, chief executive of the authority's Kowloon East group of hospitals, said the maternity services were carefully planned and much needed by the residents of Tseung Kwan O. Public Doctors' Association president Dr Loletta So Kit-ying said the authority should postpone some of its projects. 'Many public hospitals are very old and they need urgent renovation,' So said. 'Why doesn't the authority improve its existing services before opening new ones? We should concentrate on existing services before going for centres of excellence. The North Lantau Hospital is necessary because the local residents need it, but we think the two centres of excellence are not urgent.' The authority should also suspend its labour-intensive hospital accreditations process, she said. As an interim measure to retain doctors, the authority plans to promote all 100 doctors who have had specialist qualifications for more than five years to senior posts and pay them extra for night shifts. A senior executive of a public hospital said the four new private hospitals would draw more public doctors to the private sector, worsening the staff shortage in the public sector.
