The Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Department of the Hong Kong Children's Hospital has been affected by the shortage of manpower and more than 500 patients have been affected. The service has been temporarily adjusted since November last year. Earlier on, the ENT Specialist Out-patient Clinic has stopped accepting new cases, and it is expected that the service will be resumed gradually only in the second half of this year.
In reply to an enquiry today (Feb. 7), Hospital Authority (HA) confirmed that the original three doctors in the ENT Department of Children's Hospital, including one associate consultant, one resident and one part-time consultant, are understaffed due to reasons such as loss of job and personal health; the ENT Department has stopped accepting new cases, and more than 500 patients have already made appointments to seek treatment at other public hospitals, including patients with ENT disorders and patients with problems in other specialties.
A spokesperson of HA said that if an in-patient of the Children's Hospital has to undergo an emergency operation or medical procedure, it will be coordinated by the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery of the Kowloon Central Cluster. The HA is now coordinating transitional measures to arrange for the deployment of centrally recruited experienced ENT doctors to the Kowloon Central Cluster to strengthen the overall manpower. The HA apologizes for the inconvenience and concern caused to the patients and their parents, and will improve manpower through recruitment.
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