17-Sep-16 Experts warn that plans to address the manpower shortage plaguing Hong Kong’s health system are unlikely to ease the pressure. In recent years, public hospitals have faced a shortage of about 300 doctors, leading to spikes in waiting times and a system stretched to breaking point. Some patients seeking an  orthopaedics consultation must wait over three years. [image: South China Morning Post]

12-Sep-16 Hong Kong’s overburdened public hospitals will have to cope with a massive rise in patient admissions by 2041, with the number of inpatient days almost doubling, a study has predicted. The elderly would account for 76% of the increase in inpatient days, up from 62% per cent in 2022. Researchers called the rise “predictable but inevitable”. [image: South China Morning Post]

24-Jun-16 Understaffed and undertrained, Hong Kong’s end-of-life care services struggle to meet the needs of an ageing population, despite government plans to expand the stretched provisions. Hong Kong has only 19 palliative care specialists, and university training has been criticised by experts. [image: South China Morning Post]

20-Jun-16 Initiatives to reduce medical blunders in public hospitals are in the pipeline as Hong Kong's Hospital Authority identified some 30 types of mistakes most commonly made. Chairman Professor John Leong Chi-yan said regular forums would be organised for junior doctors, targeting tools left inside patients’ bodies, the wrong dose of medicine, and operations on the wrong side of a patient. [image: South China Morning Post]

18-May-16 An online platform ranking Hong Kong hospitals’ quality of care based on patient reviews has been launched. HospitalAdvisor.org.hk covers all 41 public and 11 private hospitals in the territory and seeks to empower patients to make more considered decisions about their hospital care. [image: South China Morning Post]