Patient Dies After Passing Out Inside Hospital Toilet

A patient with chronic diseases died on Monday after passing out in a toilet at the Eastern Hospital.

The hospital said the 58-year-old woman turned up at its accident and emergency department on Sunday night due to fever and cough, and waited for 12 hours before receiving medical attention.

Hospital officials said she was in a stable condition and was arranged to undergo further examination, but she twice didn’t respond to a call on the public address system.

The patient was subsequently found unresponsive inside the accessible toilet at the hospital’s waiting hall at around 4:30pm, and died around 30 minutes later.

The hospital said they had met the patient's family and expressed their condolences.

The case has been reported to both the Hospital Authority Head Office and the Coroner for further investigation.

Alex Lam from Hong Kong Patients' Voices, an advocacy group for patients' rights, said it was “unfortunate” to see such an incident occurring.

“Although we understand it is quite busy in the A&E department among all public hospitals, having patients waiting for so long before seeing a doctor, and waiting at the waiting area without sufficient monitoring, may lead to this incident happening,” he said.

Lam urged the Hospital Authority to think of ways to improve the situation, such as deploying technology to locate patients who fail to respond to calls.