The fifth wave of the epidemic deteriorated rapidly, the medical system collapsed, and photos of patients waiting overnight in tents outside the hospital under the cold wind made headlines.
In an exclusive interview with Hong Kong 01, Liu Kaiwen, who has been an A&E nurse for ten years, directly denounced the authorities for distributing false information and allowing citizens who tested positive to flock to the A&E department, which led to the rapid collapse of the medical system. "Born" and "dead", there are countless patients who die while waiting to be admitted to the ward. Medical colleagues have tried their best, but it is still difficult to take care of the patients' needs.
Liu Kaiwen was also diagnosed earlier and has to leave the emergency room for a while, hoping to recover as soon as possible before returning to the front line.
Looking back at the past month or two, his tone is full of helplessness and sadness, but he has not given up, and "does everything" for Hong Kong.
The emergency room nurse Liu Kaiwen pointed out that the situation of the collapse of the emergency room has not improved so far. The front-line medical staff has collapsed, and he is also infected with the new crown virus.
(Provided by Kevin Liu)
Non-negative pressure wards are forced to admit elderly colleagues with new crown infections one after another
The public hospital where Liu Kaiwen works is relatively small in scale and has fewer staff than some large hospitals. During the fifth wave of the epidemic, there was an outbreak of the elderly in a nearby hospital, which put the hospital under great pressure.
He mentioned that a resident had been in and out of the hospital from time to time because of shortness of breath. He was found to be infected during a hospital admission screening. However, at that time, other hospitals were short of beds, and there were more than 100 patients waiting to be admitted to the isolation facility. The hospital had to accept it. Patient admitted to hospital.
However, Liu said frankly that there is no negative pressure ward in the hospital, and the admission of the patient may lead to nosocomial infection. He also noticed that colleagues in the hospital have been infected successively since then.
▼The emergency room of Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Guanghua Hospital was full on February 25▼
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In the early stage of the epidemic, less abuse of the emergency room prompted the public to rush to the hospital and lead to the fall
In addition to taking care of infected patients in wards without suitable facilities, many citizens who tested positive quickly rushed to the A&E department to seek medical treatment, which also put pressure on the hospital.
Liu Xu said that at the beginning of the epidemic, there were very few cases of abuse in the A&E department, but at the press conference on the epidemic in early February, the Hospital Authority once sent citizens who tested positive for the rapid test to the A&E department for review by point-to-point transportation.
This is a good and erroneous message for all Hong Kong people. After this sentence was said, it went out of control and accelerated the fall of all A&E departments, and now they are all fall.
Emergency Room Nurse Liu Kaiwen
In the emergency room of Caritas Hospital, more than a dozen elderly people were lying on beds outside the tents. Some were given quilts to keep them warm, while others needed to be covered with aluminum foil.
(Photo by Yu Junliang)
Filled with "born" and "dead", it's hard to take care of it
Liu Kaiwen contacted frontline colleagues in various hospitals from time to time to learn about their work conditions. "Their experience is the same as mine, but their scale (scale) is much larger than mine." He described that the emergency room can release people. The place is full of people, both living and dead.
In the emergency room, we do CPR from the hospital bed, and there may be several corpses with you next to you.
Emergency Room Nurse Liu Kaiwen
▼Liu Kaiwen's infection status▼
Many patients died while waiting
Just like the pictures taken by major media, many public hospitals are full of people outside and inside the emergency room. When there are confirmed patients in the emergency room, it is difficult to control the infection. There is no space in the ward, many patients have been stranded in the emergency room, and there are countless patients who died while waiting to be admitted to the ward.
There are patients in the A&E department everywhere, inside and outside the hospital, in tents, and in the streets.
There are countless deaths of patients waiting to be admitted to the ward, in different hospitals, networks, and large and small hospitals.
Emergency Room Nurse Liu Kaiwen
▼Public hospitals are full▼
It's so sad, to collapse, do you understand?
Even if you go back to work without drinking water, eating, or going to the toilet, and dedicating all your time to go out, there is no way to take care of these patients.
Emergency Room Nurse Liu Kaiwen
"You can only do what you like and dislike"
Liu Kaiwen admitted that he felt discouraged like many frontline medical staff, but he still said, "I hope to use my professional knowledge, or my body, or my remaining strength, to help during this frequent, intensive, and critical period. It is available.” He also hopes that the policy can be coordinated, such as using the emergency information system, so that people with positive tests or mild symptoms should not go to the A&E department again, or expand the scope of high-risk allowance recipients, “Wait for them (other front-line medical staff) to stop working so hard. , or how much compensation."
Liu Kaiwen has worked as a nurse in a public hospital for ten years, and has always insisted on "doing the best".
(File photo/Photo by Huang Shuhui)
Sick leave, hope to return to the front line as soon as possible
Liu Kaiwen was originally scheduled to be transferred to the Hong Kong Infection Control Center this week, but because of the infection, he had to wait until he was cured.
He said, knowing that the infection control center in Hong Kong is short-staffed, there may be two nurses and one or two support staff to take care of 60 to 70 elderly people, and many of them require high-level care and nursing, "I know what they like and dislike. I can only talk and do my best.”
Liu Kaiwen has worked as a nurse in a public hospital for ten years, and has always insisted on "doing the best".
(File photo / Photo by Li Suntong)
▼On March 9, Queen Elizabeth Hospital transferred non-COVID-19 patients in the hospital▼
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Dr. He Xiaohui, Director of the Accident and Emergency Department of the Iraqi Hospital, shouted at the staff meeting: Colleagues have had a hard month. The number of deaths in a single day in Hong Kong accounts for the world's highest population, and the number of deaths in the United States has risen sixfold in two weeks after the peak period of the United States and the United Kingdom. Mainland Chinese-aided Hong Kong doctor wants to obtain information and addresses of citizens