Press Releases
SFH on Mong Kok fire, sentinel event at Tuen Mun Hospital and influenza
Following is a transcript of remarks (English portion) made by the Secretary
for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, at a media stand-up session in the
Legislative Council Complex today (November 30):
Reporter: (About regulation of street stalls.)
Secretary for Food and Health: The existing regulation is in place. We have
also strengthened a lot of measures since the arson case happened in 2010,
including making sure that all the stalls are putting their goods within a
certain boundary, ensuring all the stalls are being kept at a distance from
the surrounding buildings, and the materials for installation are something
that should not easily cause fire. All these measures are being taken. In
November, we sent 200-odd letters to all the operators of the stalls to warn
them that if their goods are being put outside their boundary, we will take
actions to prosecute. All the warnings and regulations are actually in
place, but we still have yet to find the real cause for the fire this
morning. In case this is still relating to the incompliance of operators, we
have to see what type of more stringent regulation needs to be considered.
Reporter: (About the sentinel event at Tuen Mun Hospital.)
Secretary for Food and Health: According to my recollection of the facts,
they (doctors at Tuen Mun Hospital) diagnosed the possible sign of bleeding
from the first computerised tomographic (CT) scan only after they reviewed
the second CT scan. The second CT scan shows more massive bleeding inside
the brain and that is obvious. The first CT scan, according to the
description given to me, is not obvious at all. It is only under expert eyes
and also through retrospective reasoning they are able to make that
decision. It is important to know it is not just reading one X-ray or one CT
scan that will determine a diagnosis. Very often, one has to correlate the
images together with other tests and clinical signs, and monitor the
progress of the patient thorough the hospitalisation period.
Reporter: (About the recurrence of medical incidents at Tuen Mun Hospital.)
Secretary for Food and Health: Of course it is worrying that the few
incidents came very closely together within a short time. According to our
analysis at this point of time, they did not actually happen in the same
unit, but in different units. Also, some of them are related to very serious
situations to start with. I think this is something that we should look at
it more objectively. That is the reason why I have asked the Hospital
Authority to set up a committee to look at the relevant aspects of clinical
governance to ensure that the quality of care is not being affected.
Reporter: (About influenza.)
Secretary for Food and Health: We expect this winter might be rather harsh
according to the climatory analysis. If we look at the history of influenza
outbreaks, this year we also have relatively mild summer peak. Normally Hong
Kong has two peaks of influenza, summer peak and winter peak. We are
concerned that if the summer peak does not arrive, then perhaps the winter
peak will be more severe. So we should be more careful about ourselves and I
would like to appeal to people who belong to the high-risk groups, and also
the elderly and the young below the age of 6, to consider having the
influenza vaccination as early as possible. I do not want to see everybody
rushing for the vaccination only because there are increases in outbreaks
and so on. Because by the time there is severe outbreak, even if you have
vaccination it still takes three to four weeks before the antibody will
climb up to the optimum level. It is much better to have it prepared early.
In the weekend, we are going to see a more drastic drop in temperatures, I
think it is a warning to everybody that we should be very careful.
(Please also refer to the
Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Issued at HKT 18:17
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