Hong Kong hospitals drop plan for nurses to provide repeat prescriptions

 18-Mar-16, South China Morning Post 

The overcrowded public hospitals have dropped the idea of asking nurses to prescribe medicine to stable patients due to the objection of its medical staff, the Hospital Authority’s director has said.

Image: Sam Tsang / SCMP

It comes as the burden of the understaffed body eased slightly this week, with the number of attendants at the Accident and Emergency Unit dropping to the normal level of around 5,400 per day – compared with a peak of more than 7,000 in the past few weeks.

The overall occupancy of medical inpatient beds has dropped to 104% from a peak of 130% in some major hospitals, but the rate still means that some temporary beds have to be placed in between beds and along the corridors.

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