THE Central Government-Aided Emergency Hospital in Hong Kong has been offering radiology services since April through a pilot program, which has largely reduced patient’s waiting time. It will ramp up its services in December to benefit more people.

The hospital located in the Lok Ma Chau Loop was commissioned for construction by the Central Government during the COVID-19 epidemic in Hong Kong. It was handed over to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government on Dec. 30, 2022.

As the epidemic situation became stable and the society returned to normal, Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority started a new ambulatory service model for the emergency hospital and launched the Ambulatory Diagnostic Radiology Service Pilot Program, which aimed to shorten patients’ waiting time and relieve the pressure on radiology services in public hospitals.

“The completion and transformation of the emergency hospital has given us the opportunity to deal with problems such as patients’ long waiting time for examinations,” Sin Ngai-chuen, clinical stream coordinator of the New Territories East Cluster of the Hospital Authority, said.

Sin said that there were many good facilities in the emergency hospital, and the Hospital Authority can make good use of them to cope with the medical needs of patients.

Now patients can receive diagnostic scans including computed tomography (CT) scan and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan through the pilot program. According to the Hospital Authority, as of Oct. 31, the emergency hospital had served a total of 5,746 cases, including 4,277 computer scan cases and 1,469 MRI scan cases.

“The public response to the pilot scheme has been positive. We estimated that by the end of this year, the CT and MRI examinations altogether can handle about 10,000 cases, far more than our target of 7,000 cases estimated earlier this year,” Paul Lee, chairman of the Coordinating Committee in Radiology of the Hospital Authority, said, adding that he expected the number to reach about 13,000 by March 31, 2024.

Lee said that starting from December, the emergency hospital will enhance its radiology services and launch the contrast-enhanced ultrasound service.

Lee said that the median waiting time for a CT scan in public hospitals in Hong Kong is generally over 120 weeks. After patients joined the pilot program, the waiting time was reduced to 38 weeks, while the waiting time for MRI scan has been cut from over 120 weeks to 50 weeks.(Xinhua)