Hong Kong's Caritas Medical Centre has admitted that it had blundered by refusing to send medics to help a dying patient on the doorstep of the hospital.
Monsters and Critics reports the Caritas Medical Centre's actions sparked public outrage last month when a receptionist told a dying man's son to phone for an ambulance when the son said his father lay dying at the hospital's doorstep.
She refused to dial the number for him or alert the hospital's emergency department saying the correct procedure was for the man to call the 999 emergency services number himself.
The man's 56 year old father, who has not been named, died 45 minutes later after a delay of more than 20 minutes in getting him from the hospital doorstep to the emergency unit.
In a report into the incident released on Monday, the hospital admitted "inadequacies" and promised to improve its response to urgent requests in future.
The report conceded the response of both the receptionist and the emergency unit fell short of public expectations and said it would provide better First Aid training to all staff.
The case has been seen by some observers as an example of the overly bureaucratic attitude of many Hong Kong health workers, who they say lack common sense and the ability to react to real life situations.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce
(Source: CTHN)