Hong Kong’s first children’s hospital to open with only half its beds due to manpower shortage

City’s first specialist hospital for serious children’s illnesses to pull doctors and nurses from existing hospitals as patient groups urge extra support services

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The new hospital is to open in Kai Tak later in the year. Photo: Roy Issa

Published: 6:00pm, 20 Mar 2018Updated: 11:02pm, 20 Mar 2018

Hong Kong Children’s Hospital will open in the fourth quarter of this year with 200 fewer beds than its original goal due to a manpower shortage, the institution said on Tuesday.

The HK$13 billion (US$1.67 billion) hospital will be the city’s first to specialise in treating and researching complex, serious and uncommon illnesses afflicting children. Located at the Kai Tak development area, the hospital will consist of two towers, each 11 storeys high, with a planned capacity of 468 inpatient and day beds.

The hospital will be the city’s first to specialise in serious and rare illnesses afflicting children. Photo: Winson Wong

“We plan to have 268 beds in the first year from 2018 to 2019, and gradually increase in to 468,” said Dr Lee Tsz-leung, chief executive of Hong Kong Children’s Hospital. Lee spoke during a Legislative Council meeting of the subcommittee on children’s rights.

In its first phase, the hospital will offer services in only four out of 12 planned specialities. The four specialities are cardiology and cardiac surgery, nephrology, oncology and paediatric surgery. Doctors and nurses are to be reassigned there from existing institutions such as Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret hospitals.

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Asked about the reason for the manpower shortage, Lee said: “We can’t pull all of the experienced paediatricians from existing hospitals as they need time to recruit and train the new hands.”