A recent spate of falling items in Hong Kong's public hospitals should serve as a wake-up call for the government and public institutions to review the safety of their buildings and their maintenance plans, industry experts have said.
Veteran structural engineer Ngai Hok-yan told the Post on Saturday authorities should inspect their facilities and make necessary repairs to prevent more mishaps.
"The incidents in public hospitals have sounded an alarm to the government and other public institutions about the structural safety of their buildings and the soundness of their maintenance regimes," he said.
"It's like doing a body check. They should conduct a wholesale review of their buildings to see if there are potential problems that need immediate repairs. They should not wait for other mishaps or problems to surface or a point of no return."
Ngai advised the government and others to target old buildings first and conduct spot tests on concrete slabs and steel bars to see if any immediate repairs were needed.
"The earlier the problems can be identified, the easier they can be fixed. Through early detection, different parties can improve their infrastructure planning to see if they need to renew or rebuild some facilities and strengthen the governance of their maintenance regimes," he said.
Safety in public hospitals has recently been under the spotlight following a spate of at least nine incidents involving fallen items, with one happening in the paediatric and adolescent psychiatric unit at Kwai Chung Hospital.
Four incidents happened on Friday, including the falling of one segment of a false ceiling in the Central Sterile Supplies Department on the lower ground floor of the main block of Pok Oi Hospital, redeveloped and expanded in 2006, which was believed to be caused by water seepage at a drainage pipe.
Another incident involved a piece of the false ceiling falling in the corridor of the Accident & Emergency Department of the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, opened in 1993, which was caused by water seepage at a water pipe.
A ceiling light cover at a staff toilet in Kwai Chung Hospital fell on Friday. In a fourth incident, a worker accidentally cut a freshwater pipe at Yan Chai Hospital, founded in 1973, during renovations causing water to seep into some wards and the corridor.
The Hospital Authority said nobody was injured, with patient services remaining intact, adding all incidents on Friday did not involve the structural safety of the building.
Several pieces of concrete fell from the ceiling in a consultation room on March 8. No one was injured. The unit where the incident happened was built in 1981 when the site opened.
According to the authority, Fujitac Construction and Engineering Consultants was responsible for the building safety work in public hospitals and carried out a building safety check at Kwai Chung Hospital in 2021.
In mid-February, a surgical light in United Christian Hospital fell and injured an anaesthesia assistant in the shoulder. An expert review found signs of metal fatigue in screws used to secure the fixture to the ceiling, and the problem could have been identified if checks had been conducted properly.
The hospital, founded in 1973 and expanded in 1999, is undergoing redevelopment and expansion to be completed in 2025/26.
Following the five incidents, the Hospital Authority said it would conduct safety inspections on all mounted medical devices and building structures at its 43 public hospitals. Areas with spalling concrete or reported water leakages would be prioritised. A thorough check of all surgical lights was also carried out.
A six-strong committee comprising specialists in engineering, construction and corporate communications has been formed.
Hong Kong's Hospital Authority reveals concrete slab fell onto patient bed
The committee will review medical equipment's maintenance and communication between hospitals, the authority's head office, and the public. It is expected to submit recommendations in three months.
Lawmaker David Lam Tzit-yuen, representing the medical sector, said all public facilities, including government buildings, schools and sports venues, should be subject to a safety review.
"All buildings and facilities will eventually suffer ageing problems, so we need to emphasise their maintenance," he said. "The government and other public institutions should conduct a wholesale review on the safety of their buildings, such as whether the existing maintenance regime of the facilities is sufficient."
Lam cited the example of the collapse of a green roof at City University of Hong Kong in May 2016, which injured three people, with the government concluding that overloading caused the incident at the Hu Fa Kuang Sports Centre, which was filled with hundreds of students taking an exam just a few days earlier.
He pointed out that the Hospital Authority needed to clarify if the contractor in charge of its maintenance programme was responsible for the mishaps and if it needed to strengthen its maintenance regime.
Aaron Bok Kwok-ming, president of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, said there was no need for the government or public institutions to review the safety of its buildings, saying they had put in place a robust maintenance regime to ensure the structural safety of its facilities.
"They have a maintenance schedule for conducting different levels of inspections of their buildings regularly. Usually, visual inspections suffice to detect most of the potential problems, such as cracks and concrete spalling," he said.
"I suspect the recent problems were concealed by the false ceiling, and the contractor failed to spot the problems."
