Haven of Hope Hospital, a former missionary sanatorium now under the wing of the Hospital Authority, says it is struggling in substandard conditions while a HK$600 million improvement project has languished on hold for four years.
Haven of Hope Christian Service CEO Dr Lam Ching-choi said the group was disappointed to see the project left out of the authority's budget again this year while construction costs shot up and doubts remained whether its facilities met government standards.
The situation has been complicated by changes to the original design made after the NGO acquired additional land around the Tseung Kwan O site. Unless a deadline is met by the end of this month, tendering may have to start all over again.
'We can wait, but our patients cannot wait any longer,' Lam told the South China Morning Post. 'The hospital building is now weather-beaten and worn out. There are cracks on the walls. The ceilings are peeling off. The beds are old and sometimes there are bugs biting people.'
While the project was delayed, estimated construction costs rose HK$100 million to HK$600 million as of September, he said.
'It was not meant to be a hospital when it was built and some of the infrastructure - for example, the infection-control standard - strictly speaking may not meet the requirements of the government.'
The public hospital was set up by missionaries as a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1955 to provide medical relief services for the refugees then flocking to the city. It is now one of 20 hospitals operating under schedule II of the Hospital Authority - meaning they are co-run by the government and a parent organisation.
