Hong Kong medical workers draw fortune sticks to decide who works in coronavirus quarantine wards
- Doctor says he and his colleagues have been put under intense pressure with the emergence of the new virus
- The Hospital Authority has stressed the situation is under control but frontline medical workers paint a different picture
The city’s already overcrowded public hospitals are coming under increasing pressure having had eight confirmed cases of the new coronavirus – which causes pneumonia and has killed 82 people in mainland China – amid the winter flu season.
While the Hospital Authority, which operates 43 public institutions, has stressed the situation is under control, frontline medical workers paint a different picture.
Dr Peter Wong (not his real name), who picks his fortune stick soon, said each unit had it own drawing policy, resulting in little fairness or transparency.
Senior staff in some units would not even be required to draw a fortune stick, he said. Others restricted the pool to those who had already been exposed to suspected cases of the virus.
Wong said he and his colleagues had been put under intense pressure with the emergence of the new virus, which surfaced in Wuhan at the end of December, because every suspected patient had to be examined thoroughly.