From dirty linen in hospital to lead in our water, are Hong Kong's professional standards slipping?

Bacteria-laden linen being returned to our top teaching hospital from the laundry, lead-carrying water spewing from the taps in our public (and high-class private) housing estates, experienced mariners making elementary navigation errors at sea - are these "one-off" blunders or symptoms of a deeper malaise?

Let's start by getting some facts on the table. According to an investigation by a senior medical professional, Queen Mary Hospital sent its dirty linen (including sheets and pillow cases) to an off-site laundry where it was not being cleaned thoroughly enough before it was packed up while still warm and sent back to the hospital for re-use. Not surprisingly, on return, the linen was a hothouse of potential infection. Indeed, a number of patients were infected as a result and the situation may have contributed to the death of some.

Moreover, the same laundry had been cleaning the linen for more than two years now and there were doubts whether the specified bug-killing water temperature (71 degrees Celsius) had ever been reached. During those years, the laundry had been subject to monthly inspections.

Meanwhile, thousands of households are now known to have been consuming fresh tap water with levels of lead in excess of safety limits prescribed by the World Health Organisation and our own regulations. Moreover, we are still not entirely sure whether the source of the contamination is the water main in the road, the piping within estates, the soldering which connects the pipes or even the taps themselves.

What we do know is that the health and development of many young children, and babies still in the womb, have been prejudiced because the concentration of lead in their bodies, or that of their expectant mothers, is too high. The full scale of the adverse health effects is still being assessed.

Going back further, we had the tragedy of the Lamma Island ferry collision in which 39 people lost their lives. It later transpired that one of the vessels had passed inspection despite not having been constructed in accordance with its approved plans. Of the two captains involved, one was not keeping a proper lookout - though, when he did detect danger, at least he turned the right way - to starboard - to try to avoid a collision. The other not only failed to keep a proper lookout, but when he did take action, he turned to port instead of starboard, in direct contravention of the elementary rules of the sea.