Road to 5**﹕Public hospital emergency rooms
【明報專訊】◆Source A
1F﹕Extreme-emergency room
2F﹕Real-emergency room
GF﹕Emergency room
MF﹕Super-emergency room
Source: a cartoon by 尊子 published in Ming Pao on 2016.03.10
◆Source B
The peak flu season in the winter of early this year left many public hospital emergency rooms bursting with patients. With the only exception of the Hong Kong West Cluster, which includes Queen Mary Hospital, beds in all hospital clusters were full. As for this winter, even though the peak flu season has yet to arrive, occupancy rates of medical wards for public hospitals as a whole reached 104 percent between 31st October and 6th November 2018.
Sophia Chan, Secretary for Food and Health, said that between 1st January and 30th April 2018, waiting time for emergency rooms in general was 63 minutes. But Prince of Wales Hospital had the longest waiting time of all hospitals – at 126 minutes, it was double the average. As for non-urgent patients, the average waiting time was 127 minutes. Those at United Christian Hospital had to wait for 235 minutes, which was nearly four hours, the longest waiting time of all hospitals.
Sophia Chan said that to cope with high seasons in the future, the Hospital Authority would continue to introduce measures to retain talent and improve working conditions. These measures included a reemployment scheme for retirees, increased training and more promotion opportunities.
Source: Ming Pao
◆Interpretation of cartoon
(See the table)
■Questions and answering guidelines
1. What are the causes of the situation depicted in the cartoon?
．Hong Kong's healthcare system
the imbalance between public and private healthcare
．Allocation of public resources
the insufficiency of expenditure on healthcare
．Hong Kong's demographic structure
the problem of population ageing
．Health hazards
peak flu seasons
2. What measures can the government introduce to mitigate the situation depicted in the cartoon?
．Cooperation between public and private healthcare providers
The government can negotiate with private healthcare providers on how to cooperate, such as the purchase of services from private hospitals.
．Forging a consensus among all social sectors on healthcare reform
Citizens' participation is of the utmost importance in issues such as medical financing. The government should be as open-minded as possible to understand the views of different stakeholders and strive for a consensus through dialogue.
．Spreading health-related information
To reduce the strain on the medical service and the impact on public health, the government can encourage citizens to receive vaccinations. It should also continue the Vaccination Subsidy Scheme for citizens who are more at risk to reduce the likelihood of an outbreak in the community.
Text: 樊詩琪, teacher at Christian and Missionary Alliance Sun Kei Secondary School
Translation: Terence Yip
[通通識 第552期]
