Longer visiting hours for all hospitals by end-July

The Hospital Authority said on Saturday that its extended visiting hours regime has proceeded without a hitch so far. Since early this month, visiting hours have been increased from four hours to round-the-clock access for paediatric wards and nine hours for rehabilitation, convalescent, infirmary, palliative and hospice wards at the Kowloon Central and New Territories West Clusters. Chief manager of nursing Danny Tong said the arrangement will cover a majority of clusters next month before applying to all facilities by the end of July. “We do understand that when a new policy or a new arrangement is rolled out, frontline workers might be a bit anxious," he said. "We shall stay in close contact with them. "But our preliminary understanding is that arrangements at the two clusters have so far gone smoothly. “But if some flexibility is needed, we think we can make adjustments.” The visiting hours extension could be expanded to orthopaedics as well as obstetrics and gynaecology wards later, Dr Tong added, following an operational review of the current extended-hours arrangement. The city, he also said, will implement the Advance Decision on Life-sustaining Treatment Ordinance by the end of July to allow terminally-ill patients to refuse life-sustaining treatment. Tong said opting for palliative care was a choice that did not mean a patient was giving up on life as normal. Ada Yu, hospital chief executive for Bradbury Hospice, Cheshire Home, Shatin, and Shatin Hospital, said staff had undergone training in helping terminally-ill patients reach suitable decisions on whether they wanted to refuse life-sustaining treatment. Edited by Thomas McAlinden