Today is the 27th year of the year, have you ever heard of "clean up guilt on the 27th, cleanse the sloppy on the 28th"?
This proverb originated from the folk New Year tradition in old Beijing. It means that on the twenty-seventh day of the new year, one year's bad luck will be removed, one year's disease will be washed away, and one's health and safety will be prayed for in the coming year.
This folk proverb is used this year, and it really has a special taste.
Written by: Dr Tang Yiu-hang, Director of Cluster Services, Hospital Authority
Recently, the epidemic situation has stabilized, the number of confirmed cases has gradually dropped, and Hong Kong is also steadily moving towards the road to normalcy.
In the past two weeks, Hong Kong has gradually cleared customs with the mainland, and people from the two places have resumed normal exchanges.
From the news reports, I saw many touching images of "separated due to the epidemic and reunited due to customs clearance". The gray-haired father and son hugged each other at the port with tears in their eyes, and couples reunited with joy, as if they had been reunited; even the theme park cartoons The characters all went to the high-speed rail station to welcome the passengers, and the long-lost popularity finally returned to Hong Kong.
Looking back on the past three years, this shocking epidemic has brought huge shocks and challenges to our medical system many times, and at the same time brought a lot of benefits.
Compared with three years ago, many people in Hong Kong have been vaccinated against the new crown vaccine, and more than 2.5 million people have been diagnosed, which has established a wider epidemic prevention barrier for the society; Response capacity has been greatly enhanced, and medical staff have accumulated a lot of experience to deal with different situations; we have formulated hospital bed mobilization plans according to different situations, and can quickly deploy hospital beds and deploy manpower to take care of patients in response to the epidemic; the Hospital Authority has also established an emergency response command Centralize decision-making and speed up the efficiency of decision-making; During the epidemic, many general wards were rebuilt, so that these wards have the ability to receive new crown patients; at the same time, the testing capacity of laboratories has also been increased, and sufficient personal protective equipment and drugs have been stocked .
These hardware and software improvement measures, especially our strategy of flexible deployment of hospital beds and manpower, have strengthened the HA's ability and confidence to deal with future public health crises.
With the easing of the epidemic, the number of confirmed patients began to decrease, from more than 20,000 people diagnosed per day earlier to the current number of thousands per day, and the number of new crown patients who need to be hospitalized has also gradually decreased from more than 5,000 people earlier, greatly reducing the burden on public hospitals. pressure.
Therefore, we have begun to deploy and adjust the operation mode in an orderly manner, and resume some services that were suspended earlier.
Starting this week, 11 general outpatient clinics have resumed some outpatient services that were suspended earlier, including Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and night outpatient services.
In addition, we are closely monitoring the demand of confirmed patients for inpatient beds. If the epidemic situation slows down further, we will gradually allocate some of the beds reserved for confirmed patients to take care of other patients according to the actual situation.
We have heard the voices of many citizens, hoping that public hospitals will resume more services as soon as possible.
If the epidemic situation further eases, we also hope that the operation of the hospital can resume as soon as possible and return to the situation before the epidemic.
We will continue to cooperate with the government's anti-epidemic measures and closely monitor the development of the epidemic. Based on the epidemic trend, the latest local scientific data and global conditions, we will balance risks and actual needs, and move towards the normalization of medical care step by step.
However, on the road to normalcy, we should not take it lightly.
With the increase of social activities, the number of local confirmed cases and imported cases may fluctuate. We must always accurately assess the risk.
Our current key strategy is still to protect citizens in high-risk groups, that is, the "old and young" we have always emphasized. At the same time, we hope that citizens in high-risk groups who have not yet received the new crown vaccine or booster will be vaccinated as soon as possible to protect themselves and their surroundings relatives and friends.
I hope that everyone on the 27th of the year will follow the custom of "cleaning guilt and disease on the 27th" to wash away the bad luck and diseases of the past.
Sunday is the first day of the Lunar New Year. I would like to wish you all good health and progress in the new year!
Farewell to the disease "tiger", "rabbit" raised his eyebrows!
"Hong Kong 01" "01 Clinic" cooperates with the Hospital Authority to publish a column "Garden Tour" written by medical staff every Wednesday.
Xinglin".
"Xinglin" comes from the story of Dong Feng, a famous doctor in the Three Kingdoms era. Later generations use "Xinglin" to praise medical care. Several people from Xinglin from the Hospital Authority led a tour of Xinglin Grand View Garden. A little bit of reason.
From the perspective of history, if the epidemic is in danger, there will be organic cooperation between Chinese and Western medicine to fight the epidemic and pay tribute to the nurses