Hospital Probe Report Slammed Over 'lack Of Details'

A patients' rights group on Wednesday criticised the Hospital Authority (HA) for saying it had found no evidence of staff leaking information on patients who were then arrested over an anti-government protest in June.

The report issued by the authority said a lack of privacy caused by overcrowding at Queen Elizabeth Hospital allowed officers to identify several people and that had led to the arrests.

But Alex Lam from Hong Kong Patients Voices said the report lacks detail and he doubted its integrity.

Lam said the one-page report only said there was no evidence that A&E staff had leaked information to the police. But it didn't say if staff in other departments had helped the police.

"What about other staff like nurses in other departments?," he asked. "We don't know whether information was passed to police in other situations."

Lam also raised doubts about the probe panel's independence.

"HA say the investigation was done by independent members. But in fact it's not quite independent because one of the three panel members actually, I can't say he worked in hospital, but he's a member of QE Hospital's governing committee. So he is a member of QE Hospital, so [there is a ] lack of independence in itself," said Lam.

He said that in the past, what the government used to do was engage, fully independent members for panels to carry out a probe, including people from outside the authority.