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 From Hong Kong's Information Services Department
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March 7, 2008
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Health
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Hospital contingency measures implemented
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Hospital Authority

Contingency measures will be implemented in public hospitals and clinics to cope with the surge in demand triggered by the influenza season.

 

The Hospital Authority's Central Committee on Infectious Disease & Emergency Response held a meeting today and decided to introduce temporary measures to strengthen healthcare services.

 

The following measures will be implemented as and when necessary in different hospital clusters:

* enhancing support to elderly homes by Community Geriatric Assessment Service, Community Nursing Service and Visiting Medical Officer programmes;

* creating additional observation areas and temporary areas to solve the capacity limitation of Emergency Medical Wards and reduce unnecessary admission to medical wards;

* strengthening the gate-keeping at Accident & Emergency Departments by joint clinical management supported by clinicians of Paediatrics, Medical and Geriatrics Departments;

* more frequent ward rounds in paediatric, medical and geriatric wards, especially during weekends to ensure early discharge of appropriate patients;

* early discharge of stable patients to the community with appropriate follow up and transfer appropriate patients to convalescent hospitals for further management;

* overflowing excess medical patients to other wards by using the bed alert mechanism;

* strengthening the use of ambulatory wards and open additional beds in both acute and convalescent wards to accommodate the increase in admission; and,

* reducing non-urgent admission and activities.

 

Accident & Emergency Department doctors will assess and triage patients for admission arrangement. If there is a sudden surge in patients seeking consultation, patients with minor ailment may need to wait longer.