Queen Elizabeth to focus on serious Covid-19 cases
Over 2,000 beds will be converted and other patients discharged or transferred, insider says
Queen Elizabeth Hospital will become the third public health care facility to be dedicated to treating serious Covid-19 patients, the Post has learned.
The leading hospital in Kowloon, with more than 2,000 beds, started the conversion yesterday, a medical source revealed.
“We hope to focus our resources to do better,” another insider said. “This is not just a slogan … there are clinical needs.”
Tin Shui Wai Hospital began reserving its 300 beds for Covid-19 patients on February 26 and accepts only residents in urgent medical need, while diverting others to Tuen Mun Hospital.
North Lantau Hospital designated its 160 beds for Covid-19 care on March 2 but maintains its accident and emergency department for critical patients who are not infected, with others sent to Princess Margaret Hospital.
After the conversion, Queen Elizabeth Hospital would move about 400 Covid-19 patients languishing in corridors into clinical wards and take in about 100 being treated in nearby Kwong Wah Hospital, the medical source said.
All emergency ambulance transfers will be diverted to other public hospitals, while nonCovid-19 patients will be discharged or transferred to other public or private hospitals or residential care homes.
Stable Covid-19 patients who are not fit for discharge will be sent to other public hospitals or CUHK Medical Centre, which has reserved 24 beds.
Dr Sara Ho Yuen-ha, a chief manager at the Hospital Authority, did not confirm the plan at a regular briefing yesterday but said the authority had been working to increase its capacity to take in infected patients.
“The most important point for us is to decrease the mortality and severity of cases and also the infection rate,” she said. “All along the Hospital Authority has been converting different units, including wards and even whole blocks and whole hospitals to receive Covid positive patients. We will continue to convert other units to increase our capacity to intake these patients. We are still undergoing the preparatory work so we will announce once ready.”
The city remains caught in the grip of the fifth wave of infections, with 28,475 cases and 160 deaths confirmed yesterday. Hospitals are treating 8,010 patients.
Dr Tony Ling Siu-chi, president of the Hong Kong Public Doctors’ Association, said his organisation was still trying to learn more details about the conversion plan of Queen Elizabeth Hospital, noting it did not ask the group’s opinion about the move.
Patients’ Rights Association spokesman Tim Pang Hungcheong said it was a mammoth task for the hospital to transfer patients, including cancer or orthopaedic patients, to other medical facilities.
“It is a colossal project. The hospital needs to provide seamless arrangements to transfer the existing non-Covid patients to other facilities,” he said.
“Theoretically, it is not impossible, but the execution is a very big challenge. We’ll need to wait and see if it will produce the best desirable effect for patients.”
Pang said the transfer arrangements would be very complicated as management needed to ensure patients’ medical records were properly passed on to the relevant hospital or residential care home.
“Queen Elizabeth Hospital should also ensure patients continue to have a proper medical follow-up at the new facilities. Some patients may worry that the new batch of doctors or nurses might not have a good grasp of their conditions and may mix up their treatment and diagnosis.”
Pang acknowledged private care facilities had the capacity to receive the hospital’s patients but warned Queen Elizabeth must ensure the new facilities had the same medical equipment for patients with special needs.
But he agreed there were advantages to converting the hospital as doing so would reduce cross-infection risks.
We hope to focus our resources to do better. This is not just a slogan
A MEDICAL SOURCE