EMILY TSANG AND FANNY W.Y. FUNG
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 26 July, 2015, 4:39am
UPDATED : Sunday, 26 July, 2015, 8:29am
About 150 of 312 samples taken in the first tests a week ago were sent to US labs as the Hospital Authority's capacity became "saturated". Photo: Dickson Lee
Public hospitals grappling with staff shortages are facing further strain after 1,300 people caught in the lead-in-water scandal signed up for free blood tests.
This has led the city to outsource some of the laboratory work to the United States, as the government copes with blood tests it has offered to vulnerable residents of three public housing estates whose tap water contains excessive levels of lead.
Secretary for Food and Health Dr Ko Wing-man said about 150 of 312 samples taken in the first tests a week ago were sent to US labs as the Hospital Authority's capacity became "saturated".
"We do not want the [tests] to affect the normal service of the public hospitals," Ko said yesterday. "But the workload over the blood tests has exceeded the capacity" of the authority.
United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong carried out the first batch of tests last weekend. It is sharing the workload for a further 600 this weekend with Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung. More tests will take place at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei on August 8 and 9.
About 30 extra medics were drafted in at United Christian for each day of tests to handle the assessments, the hospital said.
The work is exacerbating long-standing manpower problems in the public health system - which lacks about 250 doctors.
Public labs can handle only about 300 blood tests per week, hence the need to outsource some of the assessments after samples are collected.
The tests are offered to children under six and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
Dr Pierre Chan Pui-yin, president of the Public Doctors' Association, said medics were not feeling the strain yet, but matters could get worse if the water-safety scare widened.
On Friday, Secretary for Transport and Housing Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung said the government would expand testing for lead in tap water to all 170 public rental housing estates.
Professor Ho Kin-chung, an Open University environmental specialist in water, suggested the government conduct a representative testing exercise by drawing samples from all buildings.
But Dr Chan Hon-fai, an engineer specialising in water works who sits on the department's committee investigating the affair, said it might not be practical. Chan said owners' corporations at some private residential blocks were arranging their own tests, and that the department did not need to run tests for private owners on top of its regular checks.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1843746/hong-kong-outsources-blood-testing-us-ease-strain
