Health minister Lo Chung-mau on Monday said the new Kai Tak Hospital is crucial for Hong Kong in coping with the rising demand for healthcare services.

The secretary for health, who inspected the facility on its first day of operation, said its phased opening aimed to ensure a smooth transfer of services.

He said having two acute hospitals – Queen Elizabeth and Kwong Wah hospitals – located close to each other was not ideal in service provision, and the new hospital in Kai Tak marks an improvement.

Lo's view was echoed by medical sector lawmaker David Lam, who said with clinical services moving to Kai Tak Hospital, there would be a more even distribution of major acute hospitals in the Kowloon region.

“With the increasingly ageing population in the eastern Kowloon, you can expect an increase in the requirement for acute medical services,” he said.

“I would foresee that some patients originally living in the Ngau Tau Kok area or maybe the Kai Tak area and the Wong Tai Sin area might move to the new hospital for services, instead of going all the way to United Christian Hospital.”

Lam also said there would be challenges during the phased opening of the new hospital.

“I understand they might have done certain stress tests, but the real challenge comes when it is actually up and running,” he said.

“For instance, is the front desk sufficiently staffed to cater for a high volume of outpatients crowding there to wait for services?

“Do we have enough lifts for the services of moving patients from the ward to the operating room or to the intensive care unit? Are those lifts fast enough? Do we have adequate manpower to transport patients from one side to another?”

He said it would take some time for the hospital to identify and tackle potential challenges.


Edited by Edmond Fong