ExclusivePregnant hospital workers set to be exempted from night shifts late in term

Women working in hospitals were set to be exempted from night shifts after eight months’ pregnancy, with bosses voting on the move on Thursday.

The Hospital Authority board met in the afternoon to discuss the new policy.

The proposal came after a nurse who was eight months pregnant collapsed during the night shift at Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam.

The authority’s chairman Professor John Leong Chi-yan pledged last month to review whether to apply the exemption to all nurses who are 32 weeks pregnant onwards.

Apart from nurses, other workers doing overnight work would benefit from the new arrangement.

“It is for the sake of fairness,” Leong said.