Concern over high death rates in Hong Kong's public hospitals
Overcrowded wards and lack of intensive-care beds cited as report notes high mortality figures at three major public infirmaries
Hong Kong's overstretched public medical sector has been dealt another blow with a major report revealing an "unsettling" death rate at one of the city's biggest public hospitals and expressing concern at the number of post-surgery deaths at two others.
The latest annual Hospital Authority report into surgical outcomes across the 17 public hospitals it oversees, found that the 25-year-old Tuen Mun Hospital recorded a "high" death rate for the fifth year in a row.
The hospital's continuing shortcomings led Dr Kenneth Fu Kam-fung, the head of the Public Doctor's Association, to pinpoint overcrowded surgical wards and a lack of intensive-care beds as potential problem areas.
He said the situation at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin and Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei, which recorded the highest death rates along with Tuen Mun, was due to the same problems.
Tuen Mun rated poorly in both emergency and non-urgent surgery in a 12-month period to June 30. Prince of Wales for the first time showed a split performance with its death rate in non-emergency surgery being one of the lowest, while that for emergency procedures had risen for the past four years.
Queen Elizabeth showed signs of improvement, according to the Hospital Authority's surgical outcomes monitoring and improvement programme, which has conducted the study since 2008.
"Tuen Mun Hospital has rated poorly for five consecutive years. This is unsettling to us," programme director Dr Yuen Wai-cheung said.
