Parents of premature infants urge Hong Kong government to cut queues for early childhood help
Parents of premature infants are calling for more early childhood assessment and training to shorten queues for such services.
Representing the more than 1,000 parents in the Society of Early Arrivals, Maggie Lau Mei-ki said her prematurely born daughter had to wait two and a half years before her development issues were diagnosed.
She also faced a wait of 18 months for her daughter to get a place on a developmental training programme.
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"By the time my daughter finally got into the 'early intervention' programme, it became late intervention," said Lau.
The long queues for such services meant a lot of children missed the golden opportunity for development, which is before the age of six, she added.
At an event to promote awareness of the needs of premature babies yesterday, Henry Lam shared his fears when his son, Lam Long-sum, was born at 24 weeks weighing only 755 grams.
"I quit my job then - and I think it's worth it. I couldn't concentrate at work. Every time I left the hospital for work, I thought that might be the last time I'd ever see my son," Lam said.
After numerous operations and a number of times where Long-sum had to be resuscitated, his condition improved slowly and he was able to leave the hospital after six months.
Lam said back then he was only allowed to see his son for two hours a day, while he advocated for longer visiting hours. The hospital has since increased the visitation hours.
According to Dr Tsoi Nai-shun, director of paediatric and neonatal intensive care at Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam, babies born after less than 32 weeks in the womb are considered to be premature.
He said those who weighed 1.5 kg or below would also have serious physical health issues - with the major problem being underdeveloped lungs.
"Most deaths are caused by neonatal respiratory distress syndrome, which is the lung issue," he said.
Dr Lilian Wong Hiu-lei, president of the Hong Kong Paediatric Society, urged the government to take into account suggestions by parents to improve care.
Such ideas included better early childhood services, longer hospital visitation hours and more "kangaroo care" - a method in which a premature baby and mother can enjoy more "skin-to-skin" time, which is known to have a positive effect on the health of babies.
Other worthwhile suggestions included providing greater support for breast-feeding mothers and more affordable injections for high-risk babies.
"We handed in a report on early childhood care to the government recently, and these suggestions should be added in - the government has yet to respond," Wong said.
