An anti-epidemic pioneer when Vietnamese refugees flooded in
Numerous Vietnamese refugees stampeded to Hong Kong by sea following the Vietnam War in the 1970s. Although the construction of PMH has not yet been finished, the then Governor Sir Murray MacLehose ordered to bring forward the opening of the hospital and designated it as the centre for refugee quarantine, establishing the position of PMH specialising in handling infectious diseases in Hong Kong. The hospital continued to deal with the health and hygiene problems of Vietnamese refugees, including the malaria outbreak in the refugee camp in 1989.
Previous years in the hospital
The Big Boss canteen
The staff canteen was once run by the purveyor named ‘Big Boss’. As doctors were often in a hurry for on-call duties, the canteen has set up a credit book to allow doctors to take meals without cash and settle their bills every month. Dr Lai Tak-wing and Dr Owen Tsang laughed that no one dared to cheat out from the accounts in the credit book.
Football and BBQ time
The car park at PMH was a hard-surface football pitch, where many football buddies would meet after work to play football. There were two BBQ grills built up by bricks at the corner around the pitch. Nurses on different shifts would roast chicken wings there during lunch time. Reservation was once required since the grills were so popular.
The most genial staff election
PMH has actively organised staff incentive programmes and activities, including ‘good manner staff election’ and ‘the most genial staff election’, which were elected by all staff on a one-person-one-vote basis. Dr Owen Tsang was once elected as the ‘most genial staff’.
Diagnosis of the first case of AIDS in Hong Kong
In 1984, a patient went to PMH A&E due to fever, stomachache, and fatigue. Surgical staff later found out macrophages in patient’s stomach and intestinal tissue and suspected the patient had acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, namely, AIDS. Blood antibody test was not available in Hong Kong at that time. It happened that a professor studying AIDS was about to leave Hong Kong and agreed to take the blood sample of the patient to the U.S. for testing. Finally, the patient was confirmed with AIDS. As some of the healthcare staff had performed blood and rectal examinations for the patient and were worried of being infected. Fortunately, that was only a false alarm.
The air crash on a typhoon day
Since the opening of Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok in 1998, PMH has been the designated hospital to receive casualties from the airport. On the day that Typhoon Sam hit Hong Kong in 1999, a flight carrying more than 300 passengers made a hard landing and overturned and burnt. The entire runway was closed. PMH received and treated over 40 injured passengers in a short time. Philip Choi recalled that the fire of the flight was put out in time due to heavy rain, and colleagues had already been standing by in the hospital earlier. It was fortunate not to have caused a mass of casualties.
313 mailbox
There is a 313 crown mailbox - one of the last remaining colonial-era mailboxes - in the hospital, which is a popular photo spots for staff when the azaleas bloom every March.
