Hong Kong is invoking an emergency law to allow medical professionals from mainland China to treat Covid-19 patients in the city without a licence or registration.
A source said the unprecedented decision, made in a meeting of the chief executive’s de facto cabinet on Wednesday, would allow mainland doctors and nurses to practise in a temporary hospital to be built in the Lok Ma Chau Loop near the border if the facility requires more manpower.
The government confirmed the move in a press release on Thursday morning, saying Chief Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu would be given the power under the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to grant certain people and projects exemptions from various licensing, approval, registration and standards-related requirements, among others.
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Hong Kong hospital chief says mainland doctors’ help needed to fight fifth wave
The move would allow the administration to make better use of the mainland’s support and resources in containing the city’s rapidly expanding fifth wave of coronavirus infections, the government said.
“It is foreseeable that the number of newly confirmed cases of Covid-19 will continue to escalate exponentially and go beyond the epidemic control capacity of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,” Thursday’s statement said.
“Hong Kong’s health care system, manpower, anti-epidemic facilities and resources, etc will soon be insufficient to handle the huge number of newly confirmed cases detected every day. Such situation has constituted an occasion of emergency and public danger as defined under the Emergency Regulations Ordinance.”
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has previously said that the makeshift hospital to be built at Lok Ma Chau by a mainland construction team will be about the size of a similar temporary facility set up in North Lantau.
The North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre has 816 hospital-grade isolation beds, and is the only local temporary Covid-19 facility capable of providing more advanced treatments.
Another makeshift isolation facility was also under way in Sheung Shui, according to a source from New World Development, which offered the government a 3.5-hectare plot there with road access and gas, water and electricity connections. Two other developers, Sun Hung Kai and Henderson Land, have also offered up sites for similar facilities in Yuen Long.
Hong Kong’s hospital chief, Henry Fan Hung-ling, told state-run media outlet CCTV earlier this week that securing the assistance of mainland doctors and nurses was “what we hope to achieve most”.
“From the Hospital Authority’s perspective, we need the central government’s assistance very much, especially on manpower because our medical team is already exhausted,” he said.
However, the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance said in a statement on Thursday that it opposed such an arrangement, arguing doctors and nurses from the two places had differing cultures and levels of expertise. There was also no way to hold the mainland professionals accountable if medical missteps took place, the union added.
It went on to urge authorities to make better use of local manpower, including by suspending non-essential services at hospitals and providing more incentives for those in the private sector to help out.
“The Hospital Authority has the responsibility to adjust its hospital services and manpower to minimise the impact on patients,” said union chairman David Chan Kwok-shing.
Health care officials have repeatedly said that public hospitals are understaffed, while medical workers have reported feeling worn out as the Omicron variant rips through the city. Some staff said they had to take care of 16 patients by themselves – twice the usual amount – and worked their entire shifts without so much as a bathroom break.
More than 50,000 patients were still waiting at home on Wednesday for admission to government isolation centres or hospitals, according to a Post estimate.
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Meanwhile, at least 1,200 Hospital Authority employees have contracted the coronavirus since the fifth wave began, according to official figures.
But as of Wednesday, recovered public hospital staff have been allowed to return to work if they tested negative for the virus and at least seven days had elapsed since their positive diagnosis, the Hospital Authority said in an internal memo.
According to the memo, infected employees are required to conduct daily rapid antigen tests starting from the seventh day after their positive PCR tests samples were taken. The staff can only return to work once their rapid test result comes back negative.
Similar arrangements also apply to staff who were identified as close contacts after members of their households were infected.
The Post has reached out to the Hospital Authority for clarification as to whether the arrangements mean healthcare workers are not subject to the same isolation rules as other Covid-19 patients and close contacts.
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Currently, Covid-19 patients are required to stay in a community isolation facility – or at home if they cannot be admitted – for at least 14 days after receiving a positive coronavirus result, while their close contacts must isolate themselves at home until at least 14 days after their last exposure to the patient. Both can only leave isolation if they return a negative test result.
Dr Ho Pak-leung, a clinical microbiologist and infectious diseases expert, said that the arrangement for recovered hospital staff was suitable as it aligned with international practice.
“[Recovered patients] are no longer infectious when their Covid-19 antigen test result is negative. It definitely helps to lessen the workload of other healthcare workers at the hospital,” he said on a radio programme on Thursday. “The public does not need to be worried, it’s proved by scientific evidence. This will not affect the patients.”
Ho also revealed that outreach vaccination services were being provided to patients at Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam since Wednesday.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Coronavirus: Hong Kong companies on edge of collapse wonder how they will survive 2-month extension of social-distancing curbs
- Nearly all Hong Kong residents to receive HK$10,000 in e-vouchers, but would cash serve some better?
- Large-scale screening to give Hong Kong complete picture of threat
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