'Police Hospital Stunt Sets Dangerous Precedent'

The government has been urged to intervene in an apparent protest move by police officers who abandoned their posts at two public hospitals on Wednesday as a row escalated between the force and medical staff over the arrest of injured extradition bill protesters.

Civic Party lawmaker and doctor Kwok Ka-ki said he believed police management must have given their tacit approval for officers to leave the posts at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Yan Chai Hospital unmanned.

Kwok said the move will only increase tensions between officers and hospital staff who have complained of police harassment during an operation to arrest people injured in clashes on June 12.

The legislator warned that if such behaviour on the part of officers goes unchecked, the force's power will grow to the extent that it will be able to do whatever it wants, whenever it wants.

He said the government must get a grip on the situation, otherwise the stunt will set a "very dangerous precedent".

A pharmacist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital said it was irresponsible for the police to abandon their post there and he worried the move may affect the operation of the accident and emergency department being as some patients may have been involved in crime.

"If they just, based on some events, pull out of the station without any reason, they are not so responsible", he said.

A medical student visiting a relative in the hospital said he was worried that security staff would not be able to handle any incidents that ordinarily warrant police intervention.

"Just the other night, when I was here with my gran in A&E, someone was really drunk and just going around... and I feel like the security by themselves would not be sufficient to control these people," he said.

The force's public relations bureau had confirmed that the two police posts were not being staffed. It described this as a temporary measure and added that officers would still be patrolling in the vicinity of the two hospitals.

Earlier, the Junior Police Officers' Association issued a statement saying if hospital workers are unhappy about how officers searched for protesters suspected of criminal behaviour during the unrest on June 12, they should ask for an end to the police presence in public hospitals.