Hong Kong hospital chief quits - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences
Abstract
The chief executive of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, William Ho, has become the fourth top health official to resign in the aftermath of Hong Kong's SARS crisis. Ho called the crisis "the most difficult time in the entire history of the Hospital Authority." Ho himself fell ill with SARS during Hong Kong's outbreak in 2003. His illness prevented him from carrying out his duties, but also spared him from some of the heavy criticism heaped on other top officials during a legislative hearing about the crisis. The former secretary for Health, Welfare, and Food, Yeoh Engkiong, and former Hospital Authority chairperson, Leong Chehung, took it upon themselves to step down a year ago at the hearing's conclusion. Another top health official, Margaret Chan, left Hong Kong to work at the World Health Organization just weeks after the SARS crisis ended. Louis Shih Tai-cho, vice president of Hong Kong's Medical Association, says that the Hospital Authority's inability to monitor and support private hospitals during the SARS outbreak contributed to an embarrassing cover-up of a SARS cluster in a private hospital – one that resulted in the unchecked spread of the disease and the deaths of several patients and