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Intensive care units in Hong Kong hospitals are close to breaking point as they struggle to cope with a major flu outbreak that has exposed worrying staff shortages across the city's public health-care system.
As one of the most deadly flu outbreaks in recent years claimed six more lives yesterday, a doctors' union warned the city's intensive care unit (ICU) operations might not be able to cope if the situation continued.
Occupancy rates at the units - which care for patients with serious or potentially fatal conditions - has reached over 90 per cent, forcing more doctors to work 24-hour shifts to cope with the demand, according to the chairman of the Frontline Doctors' Union, Dr Seamus Siu Yuk Leung.
"We are under immense pressure. I do not know how we can cope if the epidemic gets any worse," said Siu, an ICU doctor at Caritas Medical Centre.
His warning came as the flu death toll hit 140, with 214 people in total needing ICU treatment.
The surge in demand has also hit other departments, with two-thirds of the internal wards reporting an occupancy rate of more than 100 per cent. Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei has the highest - 118 per cent - according to the Hospital Authority.
As one of the most deadly flu outbreaks in recent years claimed six more lives yesterday, a doctors' union warned the city's intensive care unit (ICU) operations might not be able to cope if the situation continued.
Occupancy rates at the units - which care for patients with serious or potentially fatal conditions - has reached over 90 per cent, forcing more doctors to work 24-hour shifts to cope with the demand, according to the chairman of the Frontline Doctors' Union, Dr Seamus Siu Yuk Leung.
"We are under immense pressure. I do not know how we can cope if the epidemic gets any worse," said Siu, an ICU doctor at Caritas Medical Centre.
His warning came as the flu death toll hit 140, with 214 people in total needing ICU treatment.
The surge in demand has also hit other departments, with two-thirds of the internal wards reporting an occupancy rate of more than 100 per cent. Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei has the highest - 118 per cent - according to the Hospital Authority.