Hong Kong SARS Report Faults With Govt.

Hong Kong’s response to the SARS crisis showed “clearly significant shortcomings” but no individuals should be singled out for blame, according to a report released Thursday.

The report by an outside panel of experts praised the efforts of all those who fought the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, which infected 1,755 people here and killed 299, but it said their work was complicated by a number of problems that could have been prevented.

Hong Kong was placed at a disadvantage by a lack of information from China’s neighboring Guangdong province, where the disease originated late last year, the experts said.

The 172-page report cited a failure of communication between the Hospital Authority, the Department of Health and university health experts when the disease appeared.

No contingency plan had been in place for such an outbreak, and there were weaknesses in infection control in the hospitals, the report said.

Health workers were inadequately trained in infection control, and there were design problems in the hospitals including the spacing between beds and ventilation, the report said.

Other places hit hard by SARS were also caught off guard, the report said, so some of the shortcomings were not surprising.

The experts made a number of recommendations that they said would better prepare Hong Kong for future outbreaks of SARS or other infectious diseases.

For example, the report said that there was an “imbalance between responsibility, authority and accountability in the health system” and said Hong Kong should create a better structure with more clearly defined roles.