The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The Hospital Authority (HA) expresses appreciation to staff members for their commitment in reporting duties. Amid traffic disruptions in various districts, Accident and Emergency Departments, outpatient, inpatient and emergency services at public hospitals were largely normal during the day time. Out of safety concerns for patients and staff members, evening services of General Outpatient Clinics will be suspended.

     The HA spokesperson said, "Besides emergency patient conveyance and inter-hospital patient transfer, the HA is also closely monitoring the transportation of patient food, blood products and other supplies, and in particular urgent patient specimens, for advance contingency planning in light of possible delays due to territory-wide traffic disruptions. While supporting services remain normal at the moment, HA will keep in view of the related risks."

     "As some staff members could not report duties on time in some hospitals today, some elective surgeries and day hospital services have been affected. Community outreach services in some districts have been delayed by local traffic disruptions. Healthcare staff have contacted the patients by phone to provide advice as required."

     The HA reminds patients who are not able to attend their scheduled consultation to call the clinics to reschedule the appointments later. Hospitals will reschedule elective surgeries for patients who have not attended the scheduled operations.  HA would like to apologise to all patients being affected.

     At the same time, HA would exercise flexibility for staff who could not report duty as scheduled. Service departments have activated contingency measures to deploy manpower as needed, while transportation and accommodation will be provided for staff in need as far as possible.

     HA would like to express appreciation again to staff who may need to work additional hours beyond their normal duty. HA Major Incident Control Centre will closely monitor the situation to help co-ordinate service arrangement as appropriate.

Ends/Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Issued at HKT 19:15

NNNN