The Queen Elizabeth Hospital announced on Friday night that it has set up a three-member panel, chaired by the hospital’s deputy chief executive of professional services, Dr Ho Hiu-fai.
PHILA.SIU@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Saturday, 04 June, 2016, 8:00am
DAB legislator Tam Yiu-chung apologises after jumping the queue to get surgery at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Photo: Nora Tam
The public hospital caught at the centre of a controversy after giving special treatment to prominent pro-Beijing lawmaker Tam Yiu-chung has appointed a panel to investigate the incident.
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital announced on Friday night that it has set up a three-member panel, chaired by the hospital’s deputy chief executive of professional services, Dr Ho Hiu-fai.
The two other members are Philip Choi, Kowloon West Cluster’s general manager of nursing, and Emmanuel Kao, member of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s governing committee.
DAB lawmaker Tam Yiu-chung apologises again for receiving VIP treatment at hospital
“The panel will complete the investigation and recommend improvement measures in four to six weeks. The report will be submitted to the Hospital Authority head office,” the hospital said in a statement.
The incident was first revealed on Thursday in a post on a Facebook page commonly used by public medics to share gossip. The post accused Tam, of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, of jumping the surgery queue for an operation. Tam was also allowed to rest in a staff-only unit.
On Thursday night, the same day of the incident, the hospital apologised. Without naming Tam, a spokesman confirmed that the patient in question was the first to receive surgery, describing the arrangement as “inappropriate”.
On Friday, Tam repeated the words “sorry” or “apology” five times in one minute. But he declined to take any questions.
Civic Party lawmaker Kwok Ka-ki, a doctor himself, refused to accept Tam’s apology.
“Other patients at public hospitals usually need to be in the queue for one to two years to see a doctor. They then need to wait for months to have surgeries. Such a privilege that (Tam) has received is something that even money cannot buy,” Kwok said.
Kwok urged Tam’s party colleague, Ip Kwok-him, to look into the incident as Ip is chairman of the Legco’s Committee on Members’ Interests. But Ip refused, saying that it is not in the committee’s purview.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1964284/panel-set-investigate-hospitals-special-treatment
