Hong Kong’s makeshift Covid-19 hospital will expand services to offer gastroscopy procedures, bacteria screenings to ease strain on public sector
- Facility near border with mainland China originally built to house Covid-19 patients will begin offering new services from fourth quarter
- Dr Larry Lee, chief manager at Hospital Authority, also says up to 100 doctors recruited from overseas may arrive next month at earliest to ease labour shortage
A temporary hospital built during the Covid-19 pandemic in Hong Kong is to expand its services to provide gastroscopy procedures, screenings for drug-resistant bacteria and sleep tests later in the year to relieve the strain on the public sector.
Dr Larry Lee Lap-yip, chief manager at the Hospital Authority, on Wednesday also said up to 100 doctors recruited from overseas could arrive next month at the earliest to ease a severe staff shortage.
Lee, speaking at a round table organised by Hong Kong’s largest pro-establishment party, revealed the additional services would be offered at the temporary hospital in the fourth quarter.
“Our aim is to further tackle the pressure points of public hospitals,” Lee said.
The large-scale hospital, in the Lok Ma Chau Loop near the border with mainland China, was designed to accommodate 10,000 Covid-19 patients. It was completed last April with the help of Beijing, but was idle until it was handed over to the authority in January this year.
The move to expand operations came months after the facility began to offer diagnostic radiology services to patients referred from public hospitals in April this year.
Lee said doctors and nurses from the mainland would also work at the hospital under an exchange programme, but did not give the number involved.