Hospital Authority of Hong Kong Wednesday announced a series of contingency plans to cater for the medical needs during the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in mid-December.

According to Hospital Authority, it will operate the Activation of Major Incident Control Center during the alert period to command the overall responses on 24 hours basis.

The center will be in close liaison with related Hong Kong government departments to ensure effective communication and coordination to cope with any emergency situations.

For emergency medical services and transportation of casualties, there are well established procedural guidelines between Hospital Authority and Fire Services Department in the related management.

The effective coordination between Hospital Authority and Fire Services Department in the transportation of casualties will ensure the appropriate distribution of injured persons to various acute hospitals and would not overload individual hospitals.

Hospital Authority has also developed contingency measures to adjust the non-emergency services in acute hospitals. This is to avoid the alert period in order to provide prompt and appropriate services and treatment for the patients in need.

Manpower in some departments such as Accident and Emergency, surgery, orthopedics and traumatology, and neurosurgery will be strengthened to cope with demands.

Also, internal communication within Hospital Authority has been enhanced to brief front-line staff on the services, work and contingency plan of Hospital Authority during the Conference period.

Source: Xinhua