'Let Doctors Concentrate On Treating Patients'

Medical sector lawmaker and doctor Pierre Chan says the Hospital Authority can ease the effects of a staffing shortfall at public hospitals it it allows doctors to concentrate on treating patients, rather than bureaucracy.

Speaking a day after a mass protest by doctors frustrated at a lack of medics amid the peak winter flu season, Chan said hospital chiefs needed to allocate resources better.

"We are deployed to go to the meetings, administration work, to answer the complaints, to write the papers and do the guidelines and we are forced to do so," Chan said.

He said that during the four-to-six-week peak winter flu period, doctors should be able to concentrate on working in the worst-affected wards.

Meanwhile Michael Lau, from the Allied Health Professionals and Nurse Association, cast doubt on the idea put forward by the Hospital Authority of transferring patients from medical wards to rehabilitation units.

Doing so would put extra stress on patients and do little to ease the pressure on front-line staff, he said.