Members of local concern group Real HongKongers View rally outside the Hospital Authority building on Wednesday to voice their support for medical personnel who stayed on the job while thousands of HA employees staged a walkout to pressure the government into a total lockdown. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)
Patient activist groups in Hong Kong have expressed growing concerns about the medical practitioners’ strike that has further burdened the already-strained public hospitals and threatened the welfare of many patients.
They strongly condemned the industrial action and blamed the strikers for using patient care as a bargaining chip.
At this critical juncture of the fight against the epidemic in Hong Kong, going on strike is putting the public at risk. The strike is in contravention of the professional ethics of medical workers
Tsang Kin-ping,
former president of Hong Kong Alliance of Patients’ Organizations
The strike, which started on Monday and entered its second phrase on Tuesday, is organized by the newly formed Hospital Authority Employees Alliance in a bid to pressure the government to lockdown the border with the Chinese mainland.
The strike has forced public hospitals to cut back services because a large number of medical workers “are absent from duty”, according to the Hospital Authority on Wednesday.
READ MORE: Medical staff urged to end strike
Emergency services in public hospitals have also been seriously affected as about 4,600 medical staff had walked away from work as of Wednesday afternoon, including 300 doctors and 2,700 nurses, according to Ian Cheung Tsz-fung, Hospital Authority’s chief manager for cluster performance.
Worrying about the shortage of medical practitioners across the city, patient groups warned that vulnerable patients would be the ones who would suffer the most from the reckless move.
Tim Pang Hung-cheong, a patients’ rights advocate with the Society for Community Organisation, blasted the strikers for “hijacking Hong Kong people’s health and well-being to meet their own political demands”.
As a result of the strike, many patients are not getting proper and timely treatment because numerous diagnostic procedures and surgeries in various public hospitals have to be delayed, Pang told China Daily.
He said tumor patients who need to be further tested and treated could lose their best chance for treatment because of the shortage of staff in public hospitals. This would also pose a threat to the lives of people who develop sudden life-threatening conditions, such as a stroke, he added.
READ MORE: Condemnation mounts after medical strike
He called on medical workers, the government and the society as a whole to stay united to battle against the epidemic.
Chan Ying-kit, chairman of Taishan Charitable Association, an NGO that helps mainly cancer patients, said the strike has intensified fears among cancer patients as they are worrying they may not get treatment in time. The association has dedicated to helping cancer patients in Hong Kong for at least 30 years.
“The bottom line is not to harm patients’ rights and interests,” he said.
Tsang Kin-ping, former president of Hong Kong Alliance of Patients’ Organizations, said he was worried that the damage done to patients by the delays in medical treatment would surpass the outbreak of the deadly novel coronavirus.
ALSO READ: Coronavirus: HK braces for possible community outbreak
He said at this critical juncture of the fight against the epidemic in Hong Kong, going on strike is putting the public at risk. The strike, he said, is in contravention of the professional ethics of medical workers.
Tsang, who is also the president of Hong Kong Alliance for Rare Diseases, said medical workers are on the same boat with the people and the government. He called on the strikers to shoulder their responsibilities and stand in solidarity with society.
Meanwhile, Chan Wai-kit, head of the Cancer Patient Alliance, said he was shocked that the strike could happen in Hong Kong, a city hit hard by SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2002-03 and went through the crisis by the joint efforts of the whole community, including medical workers.
“They (medical workers) stood together to combat SARS, but now they are getting together to go on strike,” he said.
David Lam Tzit-yuen, vice-president of the Hong Kong Medical Association, suggested a lack of courage of some doctors and nurses could be the reason for them to go on strike. He said many strikers are young and inexperienced. They could easily succumb to panic in the face of the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
If those medical staff are worried and frightened of the infectious disease, they could apply for a change to safer work or just quit. They should never incite others to go on strike, Lam said, adding that medical workers must not use their patients’ well-beings as a bargaining chip no matter what.
