Hospital Authority links 15 per cent year-on-year decline in A&E cases during the first three days of the holiday to fee reforms taking effect
The decline was revealed on Friday by Dr Axel Siu Yuet-chung, chairman of the Hospital Authority’s coordinating committee.
He noted that accident and emergency departments (A&E) in public hospitals often become overcrowded during long holidays, as most private clinics close.
Checks by the South China Morning Post at 11am on Friday found that non-urgent patients at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in Chai Wan faced waiting times of up to nine hours to see a doctor.
Across most public hospitals, waiting times for semi-urgent and non-urgent patients averaged around four hours, while urgent cases were typically seen within half an hour.
Siu said the number of patients visiting A&E departments during the first three days of the holiday had dropped by about 11 to 15 per cent compared with the same period last year.
