Every morning these recent days, I am distressed while listening to a radio phone-in program that inevitably fields a few calls from some hapless old folk confined to home quarantine complaining about their helplessness despite various government assistance programs that failed to deliver. The most often-raised complaint was that they didn’t even know where to seek assistance. For those who have the government’s help hotline, their usual problem was the difficulty in getting through, and even when they did, the promised anti-pandemic kits did not arrive until after they had recovered.
With regard to the disgruntled calls, the radio host seemed to be content to just receive the calls but took no action to help resolve the problem. One would have thought that he could at least undertake to refer the complaints to the relevant government departments. As most of the complaints now concern COVID-19, the Department of Health can nip the problem in the bud by simply posting one of its officers to the radio station just for the duration of the program to offer practical advice to the callers.
Private hospitals should also play an active role in helping those infected. Many of them and their families have been patronizing private practitioners and hospitals all their lives. Suddenly, they must have felt abandoned when they were refused treatment by private hospitals simply because they had a fever
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said at a press conference on March 13 that an estimated 300,000 people are self-isolating at home. She undertook to provide more assistance to them by way of adding six more clinics to meet their needs, increasing the total to 23, and adding more medicine and oximeters in anti-pandemic kits.
The special administrative region government really needs to get its act together and set the right priorities. First of all, I believe the infected citizens’ urgent needs would be better served if the government’s 24-hour anti-pandemic hotline, 1833-019, could be substantially improved. The hotline offers the first line of defense against this pernicious pandemic. People call a hotline only because they need urgent help, and if they were unable to get through on the hotline despite numerous attempts, their frustration is totally understandable. It would be money well-spent if more trained staff could be deployed to man the hotlines at all hours. Most calls are genuine emergencies. It’s about time that a performance pledge is introduced to ensure that the hotlines serve their intended purpose. In the current dire circumstance, a caller should not have to wait for more than two minutes to have his call answered by a trained operator. The government said that currently, around 540 people answer over 10,000 calls every day. Seems a lot, but surely fielding 10,000 calls a day is far from adequate when you have 300,000 potential needy people in home quarantine. Given the government’s ample resources, with support from telecom operators, and with its 180,000-strong civil service, there is really no excuse that health hotline calls cannot be promptly attended to. They should be carried out on a par with the police and Fire Services’ “999” hotline.
Second is the material assistance that can be delivered to residents affected by home quarantine. The late delivery of anti-pandemic kits is absolutely unacceptable, particularly since most of the goods are donations from the Chinese mainland that were delivered to Hong Kong in the shortest possible time. The government cited its shortage of manpower for the shortfall. The Home Affairs Bureau said that it is still trying to arrange volunteers to send anti-pandemic materials to the elderly who live alone, subdivided-flat residents, grassroots people, and ethnic minorities. The volunteers’ service is most commendable, but for the government to rely on volunteers is hardly a commendable attitude when the responsibility should fall squarely on the government. To facilitate this pandemic-kit distribution exercise, we can set up a logistics center in each of the 18 districts of Hong Kong in coordination with the respective District Offices involving different government departments. For example, the Customs and Excise Department, headquartered in North Point, could handle all deliveries and pandemic-related logistics work in the district, mobilizing its staff and fleet of vehicles. If all 60 government departments are each assigned a particular district, with the workload evenly spread out, the task of making timely deliveries of the pandemic kits should be speedily executed, with every department making their fair contribution and to be held accountable. Such district logistic centers may also prove useful in dealing with the potential city lockdown operation.
Third is the medical advice and assistance that can be rendered to those confined by home quarantine. They all have a need and right to seek medical advice. Setting up 23 clinics is good, but again, clearly inadequate for the 300,000 infected people. Also, most of them might be reluctant to go to the clinic, or unable to do so if they are handicapped or elderly living on their own. It may also be that their symptoms are mild, but they simply want some reassurances or basic medicine, particularly for their children or elderly family members. What the government should initiate is partnership with the private medical sector, both Western and traditional Chinese medicine, to promote telemedicine by setting up online video clinics, followed by dispatching of medicine directly to the patient’s home. Telemedicine has already proved its popular acceptance and efficacy in the mainland, with several listed companies focusing on this service. Locally, at least one volunteer group practicing telemedicine has been set up by 50 private medical practitioners. But the government can give this a significant boost by converting the 23 clinics into online video clinics. Depending on the state of the patient, physical attendance at the clinic can then be arranged as and when necessary. That would save a lot of unnecessary trips to both public and private clinics and hospitals.
Private hospitals should also play an active role in helping those infected. Many of them and their families have been patronizing private practitioners and hospitals all their lives. Suddenly, they must have felt abandoned when they were refused treatment by private hospitals simply because they had a fever! I am glad that these private hospitals, as a result of a senior central government official’s admonition, have now agreed to open their doors to treat COVID-19 patients.
The chief executive has reiterated that we are on wartime footing. If so, our 180,000-strong civil servants should step up to the plate and volunteer to help in any way they can to demonstrate their care and concern for the community. Perhaps this COVID-19 crisis could inadvertently prompt our community to rediscover its Lion Rock spirit of mutual caring, prioritizing the larger interest of society, and reigniting our old optimism so that we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!
The author is an adjunct professor of HKU Space, and a council member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.