Non-emergency services cut as hospitals expect peak in births

Public hospitals have cut down on some non-emergency gynaecological operations as the number of births is expected to peak this week.

Beatrice Cheng, the Hospital Authority's chief manager of cluster performance, said yesterday that based on bookings, the number of deliveries in public hospitals this week would be almost 1,100, the year's highest.

Last week there were 970 deliveries in public hospitals.

'Traditionally, September to December is the peak season for births. Maybe some mothers hope their children can enter schools earlier because babies born after December 31 have to enrol in the next school year,' she said.

'To ensure more beds and operating theatres are available, the hospitals have tried to cut down on non-emergency gynaecology operations this week, for example, sterilisation operations and low-risk fibroma operations. Emergency operations will not be affected,' Dr Cheng said.

The authority has projected that the number of deliveries in public hospitals this year would drop by 2.5 per cent to 39,481, of which about 20 per cent would be by mainlanders.

Dr Cheng said that with the higher obstetric fees, booking system and tighter immigration measures in place since February, the number of babies born to mainlanders had dropped by 30 per cent between January and October, compared with the same period last year.