Hospital Authority resumes services one after another, urges the public not to relax against the epidemic

As the epidemic gradually stabilizes and society returns to normal, the most recent reports are the numbers "0+7", "0+3" and "0+0"; but in my heart, what I remember most , is still inseparable from the daily number of confirmed cases of new crowns, the number of patients in public hospitals, and the number of hospital beds mobilized between networks.

Glad to see that these numbers have finally declined recently, friends around me have also asked, "When will the public hospital visit arrangements return to normal?" "The family's scheduled endoscopy has been postponed many times, when will it be carried out as scheduled? "

Written by: Dr Tang Yiu-keng, Director of Network Services, Hospital Authority

Looking back at the height of the fifth wave of the epidemic at the beginning of the year, the number of confirmed patients increased sharply, posing unprecedented challenges to the public healthcare system in Hong Kong.

At that time, in order to concentrate manpower and resources to deal with the epidemic, the HA mobilized manpower and hospital beds to allow medical staff to focus on handling the epidemic and provide appropriate treatment for confirmed patients; for this, public hospitals paid a lot of money and sacrificed a lot of their original services. For example, reducing non-urgent surgery, non-urgent inpatient treatment, specialist outpatient and day services, etc.

Although some services gradually resumed in May and June when the epidemic eased slightly, during the rebound of the epidemic in the past two months, public hospitals needed to further reduce services, and at least 30-40% of services were affected.

As the number of confirmed cases has dropped from the peak, we are mobilizing resources to resume some previously suspended services in stages.

We have begun to reduce the number of beds reserved for Covid-19 patients in favor of more non-coronavirus patients.

In addition, the COVID-19 Treatment Center (AWE) will also temporarily suspend the admission of patients and return to a standby state.

We will gradually redeploy medical staff back to public hospitals to continue serving other patients.

In response to the stabilization of the epidemic situation and service demand, the HA is mobilizing resources and manpower to adjust and resume some services and arrangements that were suspended earlier in stages. At the same time, the HA has also begun to reduce the number of hospital beds reserved for receiving new crown patients , to accept more non-COVID-19 patients instead.

We understand that family visits, care and support are always the best medicine for patients.

After taking into account factors such as the overall epidemic situation and the actual operation of wards, the HA will adjust the visiting arrangements in public hospitals in phases in a short period of time to further facilitate the public to visit relatives and friends who are hospitalized.

We will closely monitor the development of the epidemic and service demand, and gradually adjust and resume more public hospital services and arrangements that were suspended earlier.

Although the epidemic has stabilized, there are still about 2,000 confirmed patients in public hospitals. We must strike a balance between "responding to the epidemic" and "adjusting services" to provide appropriate treatment for different patients.

Having experienced five waves of epidemics, we have accumulated valuable experience and used new thinking to improve the existing system to deal with the epidemic; in the face of the unpredictable epidemic, the HA has not dared to relax, and has maintained flexibility and flexibility to prepare and response.

We once again call on everyone to stay vigilant at all times and strictly observe social distancing and other epidemic prevention measures. Those who have not yet completed the vaccination should be vaccinated as soon as possible to strengthen the protection of themselves and those around them. In particular, parents should arrange for their children as soon as possible. vaccination.

The fight against the epidemic must rely on the unity of the public to prevent the epidemic from rebounding again.

"Hong Kong 01" "01 Clinic", in cooperation with the Hospital Authority, publishes a column "Garden Tour" written by medical staff every Wednesday.

Apricot Forest.

"Xinglin" comes from the story of Dong Feng, a famous doctor in the Three Kingdoms period. Later generations praised medical care as "Xinglin". Five people from Xinglin from the Hospital Authority led the garden to visit Xinglin Grand View Garden. A little bit of reason.

Looking at the epidemic from history