Medical waste piled up outside public hospitals

Medical waste including those disposed from isolation wards treating Covid patients pile up outside a tin house outside Caritas Medical Centre due to manpower shortage, leading to transmission risks, a hospital unionist said.

Hospital Authority Supporting Grades Staff Association chairwoman Anita Ng Wai-ling said on a radio program on Monday that some contractor cleaners said their companies have not provided staffers with sufficient protective gear and therefore they were worried about cross-infection from handling medical wastes, with many of them are older workers.

“I think the Hospital Authority should provide those contractor cleaners with sufficient isolation gowns to as they are also workers of HA,” Ng said.

Ng’s comment came after local media on Sunday spotted hundreds red bags of rubbish piled up outside a tin house behind Caritas Medical Centre’s Wai Shun Block -- an acute block where to accommodate inpatient wards, accident and emergency department, intensive care unit and operating theatres.

Ng on Monday said the problem should have improved as she understands that the hospital has found other companies to clear up the rubbish. However, she said rubbish not only piled up in Caritas Medical Centre, but such situation also appeared in other public hospitals including Kwai Chung Hospital, Tin Shui Wai Hospital and Tuen Mun Hospital, due to manpower shortage and more Covid patients in hospitals.

Mass outbreaks have also affected workers and strained manpower, as only three out of up to 10 cleaners in Kwai Chung Hospital were able to go to work, she said.

“Many contractor workers have been infected, or some have quit due to the current [epidemic] situation, while some have been listed as close contacts, so not many workers were able to go to work, making a lot of rubbish to pile up in hospitals,” Ng said.

“Normally there are eight to 10 workers [to clear up the rubbish], but I believe more than half of the workers could not go to work in most of the hospitals, and some contractors have been urging workers to go to work even they haven’t completed their isolation period,” she said.

Ng said manpower shortage also appeared in other supportive positions like ward assistants as each ward assistant has to take care of 40 to 50 patients. She also said staffers are facing infection risk as there are not enough isolation wards, some patients were sent to general wards while they were waiting for their Covid test results.

“There is no difference between dirty team and non-dirty team,” Ng said.

Ng said many employees have resentment, and she hoped the Hospital Authority and the government can provide fixed allowance to frontline staffers.

Respiratory disease expert Leung Chi-chiu said it’s not ideal for medical waste to pile up at hospitals but the latest wave of outbreak has affected various industries and caused manpower shortage.

He said infections are serious in cleaning companies, so it’s difficult for them to find more workers in a short time, while the number of patients increased.

Apart from medical waste, the surging number of Covid-19 deaths has also overwhelmed morgues as dead bodies were seen leaving at the accident and emergency department or temporary tents outdoor in some public hospitals including Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Caritas Medical Centre.