Overwhelmed hospital sees patients "sleeping with the dead”

A photo shared online on Friday showed at least six bodies in mortuary bags placed around living patients inside a medical ward at one of the city’s public hospitals.

The corpses in their grey bodybags can be seen unceremoniously placed between and around three hospital beds occupied by conscious, elderly patients. 

However, the netizen who uploaded the photo could not identify where the horrifying scene was spotted nor the time and date the photo was taken.

Netizens were saddened by the scene, saying such an arrangement is disrespectful to both the deceased and the patients.

“Medical workers at hospitals are not the ones to blame for such a tragic scene! The government is simply not doing enough to allocate more resources to the city’s healthcare sector!” One netizen wrote.

“This is the outcome of the government’s years of omission to improve the healthcare system, leading to such an outrageous scene!” The netizen added.

Others also said the elderly patients recovering on the hospital beds must be horrified.

“I wonder what they [the patients in the photo] are thinking witnessing such a scene, it is simply inhumane,” the comment read.

Speaking on a daily media briefing today, the Hospital Authority's chief manager for patient safety and risk management, Sara Ho Yuen-ha said she had inquired with hospitals regarding the photo, which she believed the photo was taken from a while back.

She said the situation has already been dealt with. However, she did not disclose which hospital it was.