Hospital Authority appoints review committee members

The Hospital Authority on Tuesday announced the list of appointees for a committee reviewing its governance and operations, following a spate of incidents at public hospitals. The committee is chaired by Fok Tai-fai, a paediatrician and former dean of the Chinese University's medical faculty. Four of the seven remaining members are doctors, including medical sector lawmaker David Lam. They are joined by Tim Pang - an advocate for patients' rights - and Daniel Lam, former head of the Urban Renewal Authority. The committee will review existing mechanisms to monitor performance, systems to manage risk and accountability, as well as incident response policies. "The HA expects the committee to conduct a comprehensive review of the systemic issues in public hospitals with a view to enhancing the quality of healthcare and patient safety," it said in a statement. The committee will submit recommendations to the HA's governing board within three months. The government had earlier ordered a thorough review after a string of medical blunders and equipment failures at public hospitals. This included a 50-minute power outage at Kwong Wah Hospital last month, forcing more than 20 operations to be rescheduled.