Coronavirus: newborns and cancer patients at risk as Hong Kong nurses strike over government response to outbreak
- Officials say neonatal intensive care units and emergency services affected as thousands walk out
- City’s leader Carrie Lam urges staff to return to work
Thousands of striking medical workers in Hong Kong were urged to return to work on Tuesday, with public hospital bosses saying newborn children and cancer patients were being put at risk by the industrial action.
A day after almost 3,000 doctors and nurses walked out in protest at the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, thousands more joined them as the stand-off escalated.
The Hospital Authority, which runs public health care facilities in Hong Kong, recorded more than 5,000 absent employees as of 6pm, including 2,800 nurses and 360 doctors.
But the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance, which organised the strike, said it recorded more than 7,000 members joining, including 4,500 nurses and 360 doctors, or about 10 per cent of the total workforce. The alliance said it would need to check with the authority on the difference. However, an authority spokesman said it did not have further information.
Services at accident and emergency wards, cancer departments, and intensive care units for babies had to be scaled down, the authority’s chief manager of cluster performances Ian Cheung Tsz-fung said.