The Doctor Will See You Now [Non-Fiction]

Chapter 123: The COVID Series

Hong Kong is currently in its fourth wave of COVID, having gone from a previous daily incidence (newly-diagnosed cases) in the single digits to over eighty new cases confirmed on 25th November alone. A lot of those infections have 'unknown origins' meaning contact tracing couldn't link them with another infected person, which is interesting because infections from unknown origins were rare in the first three waves. Some people speculate it's come from the loosely-enforced so-called 'mandatory' quarantine orders for people crossing borders from mainland and also from mainland government officials who are exempt from quarantine altogether. There is obviously keen interest for those people not to be named as the outbreak source from our government's point of view.

Patients are rushing into hospital if they have fever or chest symptoms. A lot of those are elderly because we are also starting flu season now. With our hospital beds at an all-time low for the past few weeks and even worse now (one day last week we only had two empty beds to admit cases and then we were full to burst), our doctors are forced to discharge patients earlier than we would have liked. The old man with chest infection who could probably benefit from staying an extra day or two to see how well he eats and how his chest is truly and well on the mend? Out. The little old lady who could have an extra day or two of physiotherapy before we are at the point of best rehab and fit for home? Out.

That also means quite a few of those premature discharges get admitted a few days later, some in a worse state than before.

It's frustrating as a physician to see those cases because we know some should have stayed a few more days. But a few more days for twenty or thirty patients mean our admission ward explodes and then A+E beds explode, and we can't afford that.

Meanwhile, our Chief Executive Carrie Lam last week announced a new system to allow mainlanders come into Hong Kong without need for mandatory quarantine as long as they showed a negative nCoV test 24 hours before travelling.

I previously discussed incubation period of this virus and false negatives already (See Chapter 110). I don't need to reiterate why this is a terrible idea during a pandemic, especially as we have just started the fourth wave here. Especially as the border hasn't been closed all along. Especially as there are already so many exempt persons suspected to bring in nCoV here when we had it almost-controlled. During a winter surge. When our hospitals are on the brink of breakdown.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam has also introduced a scheme to give every person diagnosed with nCoV $5000 HKD (approx $650 USD) in an effort to encourage more community people get tested. There has been a massive backlash when mandatory testing for the whole city was first proposed (mainly due to lack of trust in the government in handling the samples, manipulating the data, the lack of transparency by the government and suspected ulterior motives for mass testing). But my first reaction was incredulity that she's basically paying people five grand to be infected.

As a hospital physician in a hospital full to burst already, I just wanna say: what the everloving fck??