Call to toughen rules for reporting incidents at private hospitals in Hong Kong
Concerns arise after breakdown of air conditioning at St Teresa’s Hospital created condensation in operating theatres but incident from last July only now revealed
Health authorities have come under pressure to review incident reporting guidelines for private hospitals after 12 operations were affected by a 45-minute breakdown of an air-conditioning system at one facility last year but which was only revealed on Monday.
St Teresa’s Hospital, a private facility in Kowloon City, confirmed to the Post the air-conditioning system for its operating theatres broke down on July 31 of last year.
The fault resulted in condensation dripping from surgical lights, forcing staff members in some operating rooms to resort to using an umbrella, according to surgeon Dr Liu Chi-leung.
Liu, who was performing an operation in one of the affected theatres, told the Post the stability of an endoscope he was using might have been affected by the sudden rise in humidity and a surgical display was disrupted for about five minutes.
“All the [surgical] apparatus were dripping with water and infected,” Liu said. “It was a catastrophic scene.”
In response to Post inquiries, the private hospital said the chillers of its air-conditioning system for the operating theatres stopped working at around 7pm on the day in question.