Hospitals To Get HK$500mn To Battle Flu Cases

The Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, has announced that the government will allocate extra funding of HK$500 million to the Hospital Authority to hire more people and reward overworked staff during the current winter flu season.

Doctors and nurses have been complaining about a long-standing manpower shortage and excessive workloads as public hospitals are overcrowded with patients.

Speaking before the weekly Executive Council meeting, Lam expressed her “deepest gratitude” to medical staff who are shouldering “extreme pressure” to take care of patients at public hospitals.

Last year, the government also provided the authority with one-off funding of the same amount to deal with the winter flu season.

Lam said the money could be used for purposes such as hiring part-time doctors and nurses, and giving special allowances to staff who work overtime.

“In order to ensure all these short-term measures could be implemented more smoothly and effectively, I’m announcing now that like last year, the government has reserved a one-off allocation of 500 million dollars that the Hospital Authority can come back anytime to apply for the use of funding in order to effect those measures,” she said.