Nowhere to go: Hong Kong public hospitals running out of beds

Hong Kong’s public hospitals are crowded with thousands of patients on Tuesday amid the winter service surge, with 13 hospitals in the territory running beyond their capacity.  

As of midnight, the number of people who used the Accident and Emergency services surpassed 5,000 people, according to the Hospital Authority.  

The city’s 13 public hospitals saw an average of over 100 percent for its medical inpatient bed occupancy rate, meaning some patients had to stay in temporary beds in hospital corridors.  

The occupancy rates reached a whopping 116 percent in Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, while United Christian Hospital also recorded an occupancy rate of 114 percent.   

As for pediatric inpatient beds, the highest occupancy rate was recorded at Prince of Wales Hospital at 83 percent, higher than that of Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital.