Hong Kong hospital wards packed like Chinese restaurants, doctors complain as deadly flu surge grips city
- Frustration boiling over at what staff see as no improvement in 30 years, according to veteran paediatrician
Hong Kong doctors and nurses at overloaded public hospitals say they are having to set up beds in corridors and offer telephone consultations to free up space on wards stretched to breaking point as the winter flu surge grips the city.
The situation at private hospitals was reportedly equally dire on Thursday, with one in Sha Tin saying its children’s ward was 100 per cent full and new patients might need to wait up to 24 hours for admission.
The occupancy rate on public medical wards was 110 per cent, according to Hospital Authority figures, meaning temporary beds were having to be laid out between existing beds or along corridors.
To voice their dissatisfaction with the heavy workload, two doctors’ groups and medical sector lawmaker Dr Pierre Chan were set to hold a forum at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei on Saturday.
“More beds have been added in those wards but nursing manpower has not been increased,” said Cecilia So Chui-kuen, president of the Hong Kong Nurses General Union.
A 34-bed ward might now have 40 to 50 beds, while a 45-bed ward would have increased to 60, she said.