Hong Kong outsources blood testing to US to ease strain on hospitals

Public hospitals grappling with staff shortages are facing further strain after 1,300 people caught in the lead-in-water scandal signed up for free blood tests.

This has led the city to outsource some of the laboratory work to the United States, as the government copes with blood tests it has offered to vulnerable residents of three public housing estates whose tap water contains excessive levels of lead.

Secretary for Food and Health Dr Ko Wing-man said about 150 of 312 samples taken in the first tests a week ago were sent to US labs as the Hospital Authority's capacity became "saturated".

"We do not want the [tests] to affect the normal service of the public hospitals," Ko said yesterday. "But the workload over the blood tests has exceeded the capacity" of the authority.

United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong carried out the first batch of tests last weekend. It is sharing the workload for a further 600 this weekend with Princess Margaret Hospital in Kwai Chung. More tests will take place at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei on August 8 and 9.

About 30 extra medics were drafted in at United Christian for each day of tests to handle the assessments, the hospital said.

The work is exacerbating long-standing manpower problems in the public health system - which lacks about 250 doctors.