It must have been all that holiday food

(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-01-04 09:42

The emergency rooms at 14 major public hospitals in Hong Kong received 16,890 visits by patients during the three-day Christmas holiday, an increase of 7.7 percent on average compared with the previous 23 days of the month, but 9.3 percent lower than the same period a year ago.

At one hospital in the New Territories, the number of patients with gastro-intestinal infections admitted during the holidays doubled that of pre-Christmas days. And because there were fewer doctors working during the period, many patients had to stay longer than usual while some others could not get a bed immediately because of delayed discharges.

However, most of the hospitalized patients needed to stay for just one night, or two at most, so no serious crowding or clinical mishaps were reported during the hectic three days, the hospitals said on December 27.

(Oriental Daily News)



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