'Mistakes were made' in cab driver's fatal last minutes at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, expert tells inquest

A leukaemia patient, who died after a blood infection, should never have been allowed to transfer hospitals, an inquest has heard.

Testifying on Friday, Professor Kwong Yok-lam, chair of haematology at the University of Hong Kong, said this was one of several mistakes made by doctors and nurses in the treatment of taxi driver Sung Hoi-chau, 51.

Kwong said Dr Martin Lau Che-ying, a resident specialist at Queen Elizabeth Hospital's accident and emergency ward, should not have allowed Sung to be transferred from the Yau Ma Tei hospital in a taxi - a trip that took 34 minutes.

On October 31, 2011, Sung had had chemotherapy treatment at Princess Margaret Hospital, Kwai Chung, before being allowed to go home, even though a reading on his white blood cell count was virtually zero.

The next day he developed a fever and was rushed by ambulance to Queen Elizabeth. At the family's request, he was allowed to transfer back to the Kwai Chung hospital.

After he was admitted to Princess Margaret, he was made to wait an hour and a half in the A&E unit - and another 32 minutes before he was seen by a doctor on the internal medicine ward.