'Hospital Authority Yet To Learn From Past Woes'

Health sector lawmaker Joseph Lee said on Wednesday that the chaotic scenes in public hospitals this flu season show that the Hospital Authority has not learned from past experience.

On Tuesday, the government announced a HK$500-million cash injection to public hospitals to help them cope.

It's the second year in a row the authority has been given emergency funds, and Lee, who chairs the Association of Hong Kong Nursing Staff, says the authority didn't use last year's funds effectively.

"The Hospital Authority should openly and transparently work out a detailed road map and timeline on how to use this extra 500 million to, number one, alleviate the present situation (and) number two and try to sustain the nursing ...care in the public hospitals (and) number three try to retain talent and to increase the technical supervision of the nurses," Lee said.

He also called on the authority to rectify “ineffective and chaotic” policies and to replace and update medical equipment in critical areas.

Public hospitals are already overwhelmed by the number of flu cases and experts have warned of a surge during the first week of next month, which coincides with the Lunar New Year, when many clinics shut down.

On Tuesday, the Health Secretary, Sophia Chan, said the government has asked private doctors and Chinese medicine practitioners to open their clinics over the holidays. She hoped charitable organisations would also keep their clinics open to alleviate overcrowding at public hospitals.

Authorities have expanded the quota for public clinics to provide services to an additional 3,900 or so people during that period, and the Hospital Authority also said it has hired more than a thousand part time medical staff to tackle the current winter flu surge.

More than 900 of these part-timers are nurses, while 19 are doctors and 12 are allied health professionals.