‘Set up hotlines to divert Covid patients from A&E’

The head of the Hong Kong Public Doctors’ Association, Tony Ling, has urged health authorities to set up triage hotlines for people who test positive for Covid, to reduce the need for them to go to public hospitals.

Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments have seen long queues recently, as more infected people head to them for confirmation tests or treatment.

Speaking on an RTHK radio show, Ling said public hospitals have already added a lot of isolation rooms, but patients still have to wait a long time before they’re admitted because rooms are running out.

He said while Covid patients are separated from others at A&E departments, there could still be transmission risks.

“The separation of Covid and other patients at emergency rooms is starting to get blurry. If a Covid patient arrives, there is definitely a chance that he or she will mix with other patients for a short time. A&E staff will try our best to shorten that time, but we can’t make any promises if the outbreak goes on like this,” he said.

“Hotlines could really be set up so the Centre for Health Protection can sort patients. We can then prevent a situation where several thousand preliminary positive patients head to the A&E for treatment, which is possible in future. Emergency rooms need to conserve manpower to deal with other patients.”

Speaking on the same show, Anders Yuen, who chairs the Association of Hong Kong Nursing Staff, said there have been bottlenecks when it comes to sending patients from A&E to isolation facilities.

He said it’s “extremely unsatisfactory” that some infected patients have to wait over 10 hours in tents outside A&E departments before being taken to isolation facilities, on top of the five to six hours they already spend waiting for their confirmation test results.

With isolation beds quickly filling up, the Penny’s Bay quarantine facility will start taking in Covid patients with mild or no symptoms from Tuesday.

Ling and Yuen said doctors and nurses have been deployed to Penny’s Bay.

Public hospitals will also reduce non-emergency operations by 30 to 50 percent to handle the pandemic situation, Ling said.