Overcrowding in Hong Kong hospitals prompts authority boss to suggest sending patients to rehab centres
- Dr John Leong wants to ease pressure on general and geriatric wards, but frontline staff say that won’t solve the problem
- Occupancy at some of the city’s public hospitals is more than 90 per cent
The head of the Hospital Authority has suggested putting patients into rehabilitation wards and centres, as a way of coping with the dire overcrowding in Hong Kong’s public hospitals.
But Dr John Leong Chi-yan’s suggestion on Sunday was immediately dismissed by lawmakers and frontline hospital staff, who said it would not be enough.
This comes a day after health chiefs, including health minister Sophia Chan Siu-chee, and the authority’s CEO Dr Leung Pak-yin, met more than 100 public doctors to discuss the crisis, while Leong, the authority’s chairman, also apologised to the public for failing to provide satisfactory services.
And on Sunday, Leong reiterated that while a lack of space and staff shortages could not be solved overnight, the authority would find a way out of the mess.
“Most of the overcrowding is at general and geriatrics wards,” he said. “I hope we can move some of the patients there to be treated at rehabilitation units, since not all of the wards are as jam packed and we can relocate some of these patients to lessen the pressure at hospitals.”