LettersWhy Hong Kong can’t follow France and send nurses to patients’ homes: public hospitals just cannot afford it

I refer to R.L. Wilson’s letter of March 3 (“France has a lesson for Hong Kong on freeing up hospital beds”). I am impressed with the French system but I think it is rather difficult, if not impossible, for Hong Kong to follow suit, given our acute shortage of doctors, nurses and other health care staff.

The overcrowding at government hospitals, which was further aggravated over the peak flu season, made headlines earlier this year, with beds placed in corridors and in the gaps between ward beds. Some patients also felt they were “evicted” from hospital before they had been properly “cured”. The generally held view is that government hospitals are eager to discharge patients so that beds can be freed up for the more needy. I know of a patient who was discharged after a week’s stay in hospital and he was asked to return to another department of the hospital for antibiotics injections twice a week.

On January 20, overworked nurses demanded action on the manpower crisis. Some doctors also joined the protest. The hospitals simply cannot afford the luxury of sending nurses to help patients at home as Mr Wilson suggests.