Why haven’t Hong Kong’s private hospitals stepped up in Covid fight? Lack of facilities, manpower to blame, sector chief says as pressure mounts

Insufficient isolation facilities, manpower and the absence of government engagement were the reasons behind Hong Kong private hospitals’ refusal to take in Covid-19 patients, the sector’s leader has said, as pressure mounted for them to step up efforts against the pandemic.

The city’s private health sector has come under renewed scrutiny after mainland Chinese Vice-Premier Han Zheng criticised them for not admitting Covid-19 cases during a meeting on Sunday with Hong Kong delegates to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the nation’s top advisory body.

Top government pandemic adviser Professor Yuen Kwok-yung last week also said it would be “morally wrong” for private hospitals to turn away coronavirus patients when public facilities were like “battlefields”.

But Dr William Ho Shiu-wei, chairman of the Hong Kong Private Hospitals Association, told a radio programme on Monday that “some individuals in society” had passed “misconstrued messages” to Han, the mainland state leader who oversees Hong Kong and Macau affairs.

“I totally agree with Vice-Premier Han that once ‘the angels in white’ put on their white robe, they are duty bound to save lives,” he said, referring to a phrase used by the state leader to describe doctors.

Ho also said that private hospitals had never been asked by the government to take care of coronavirus patients due to a lack of isolation facilities, adding there had been a consensus that only non-Covid-19 patients would be transferred to ease pressure on the public health care system.