Extension of special visiting arrangement for child and adolescent psychiatric patients
***************************************************************************************
The Hospital Authority (HA) will extend the special visiting arrangement for child and adolescent psychiatric patients of public hospitals from this Friday (November 26) (see table below).
The spokesperson for the HA said today (November 22) that the extended special visiting arrangement is applicable for visiting child and adolescent psychiatric patients who are below the age of 18 and have been transferred out of observation areas. With regard to vaccination requirement, as in the special visiting arrangement implemented in acute and specialist hospitals, family members of child and adolescent psychiatric patients are required to have completed two-dose COVID-19 vaccination for more than 14 days, so as to minimise the risk of infection for patients and staff in the hospitals.
"Ward staff will schedule the visits and begin calling the patients' family members in the next few days. One to two visits will be arranged for one family member in a designated time slot each week with due consideration to the clinical condition of the patient and the operation of individual wards. All visits have to be arranged and scheduled by the ward staff," the spokesperson added.
"Visitors can scan the Hospital Visit QR code, which can be found in the HA webpage and the 'HA Go' mobile app, to fill in the health declaration form within 24 hours before the visit and must show the QR code generated by the system to the ward staff."
The HA hopes the patients' family members can understand the limitations of the visiting arrangements under the current epidemic situation. All hospitals will continue to facilitate compassionate and video visiting as far as practicable. The HA will also closely monitor the situation to consider extending the special visiting arrangement to other psychiatric patients in due course.
The spokesperson reiterated that all visitors entering public hospitals are required to comply with the infection control measures, such as wearing surgical masks, temperature checking and filling in health declaration forms. In addition, visitors need to scan the "LeaveHomeSafe" venue QR code when entering public hospitals, except for exempted persons (including persons who are aged below 12 or aged 65 or above, those with disabilities that render use of the app difficult and individual persons granted exemptions due to actual circumstances can complete a record form as registration).
The psychiatric wards for child and adolescent psychiatric patients included in the special visiting arrangement are listed in the following table:
| Cluster | Hospital | Wards (for child and adolescent psychiatric patients only) |
| Hong Kong East Cluster | Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital | G3 |
| Hong Kong West Cluster | Queen Mary Hospital | J4 |
| Kowloon East Cluster | United Christian Hospital | 3C and 3D |
| Kowloon Central Cluster | Kowloon Hospital | IJ2 |
| Kowloon West Cluster | Kwai Chung Hospital | L1 |
| New Territories East Cluster | Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital | EG |
| New Territories West Cluster | Castle Peak Hospital | D101, D201, D202 and D401 |
| Tuen Mun Hospital | E2 |
Ends/Monday, November 22, 2021
Issued at HKT 17:42
Issued at HKT 17:42
NNNN