Recovering coronavirus patients left ‘hopeless’ after delayed discharge from Hong Kong treatment facility, poor hygiene conditions
- Patients at AsiaWorld-Expo’s treatment facility say they were discharged several days late despite meeting requirements to leave
- Conditions at the venue left one patient feeling ‘hopeless’ as staff kept saying she would leave ‘later’
Speaking to the Post on Sunday, one patient described spending two days waiting in the facility after she received her discharge notice, while others that she knew had been waiting for three days.
Coronavirus patients are eligible to leave the hospital or treatment facility if they return three test samples with a CT value of 33 or above.
Upon discharge, they are also required to wear electronic tracking wristbands and isolate themselves at home for 14 more days.
A 40-year-old patient, who wished only to be identified as Ann, said she received her discharge notice on Thursday but had waited an extra two days to be released after spending a total of 15 days at the facility.
Hong Kong confirms another 342 Covid-19 infections, 136 of them untraceable
“The staff said my quarantine order was not ready. I felt hopeless while waiting and no one can really make a decision in the facility,” she said. “The nurses were swamped with people asking why were they still in the facility. One nurse told me maybe I could get out later. But you never know what they mean by ‘later’.”
Ann travelled from Doha to Hong Kong on January 21 and tested positive at the airport before being sent to the treatment facility. She had made multiple calls to the health authorities while waiting for the quarantine order but was only told to wait for further notice.
“In my mind, this was effectively illegal detention given there is no legal document in place to hold us in the facility,” she said, attributing the chaos to the shortage of manpower provided by the health authorities.
Another patient, surnamed Lau, also shared her similar experience with the Post, with her delayed discharge already entering its second day.
“My case is not the worst as I know someone in my ward who had waited for four days,” the 30-year-old businesswoman said. “I don’t quite understand the arrangement. It seems like they just randomly issued the quarantine orders regardless of the time the discharge notes were made by the doctor. It was unfair and chaotic.”
Lau added that she was on the same flight as Ann and had travelled back to Hong Kong to reunite with her family.
Ann, who works as a project manager in the city, also recalled the experience in the facility as “dreadful”, especially the unhygienic conditions.
“Rubbish bins in the washrooms were always overfilled with tissues. Half of the toilets are always out of use,” she said. “For three days there was no hand soap provided at the sinks. Imagine people there not washing their hands with soap for days. It was absolutely filthy.”
Lau also said she had seen an open specimen bottle, used to collect deep-throat saliva samples for Covid-19 testing, left on the ground in a shower room.
“It was disgusting. I think there were not enough cleaners in the facility,” Lau said.
Covid-19 lockdowns had marginal effect on death rates: study
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health told the Post that it issued home isolation orders for recovering patients as soon as possible after receiving a report from the Hospital Authority that they were eligible for discharge.
“We hope the public will understand that the processing of relevant documents and procedures takes time and involves different government departments,” the spokeswoman said.
The Hospital Authority said earlier this month that they were preparing to reopen more halls at the AsiaWorld-Expo’s treatment facility to provide 500 additional beds.
About 200 nurses are currently working at the AsiaWorld-Expo and the North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre, with the authority saying they would recruit about 400 part-time nurses to assist the newly opened facilities.
