Intensive Care Units (ICU) close to breaking point, doctors and nurses on straight 24-hour duty.  These are some of the scenes at hospitals in Hong Kong, amid the worsening winter flu outbreak.

A doctors' union had warned hospital operations may not be able to cope with the surge of patients if the epidemic worsens. 

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"We are under immense pressure. I do not know how we can cope if the epidemic gets any worse," said Dr. Seamus Siu Yuk Leung, Chairman of the Frontline Doctors' Union, at Caritas Medical Centre.

The flu outbreak had claimed six more lives on Saturday, raising the death toll this year to 140.  214 people are now in need of intensive care. 

Doctors are forced to work on a full 24-hour shift, as occupancy rate at Intensive Care Units are now going over its 90 percent capacity.   This triggered complaints from doctors who are now asked to go on a 24-hour duty 10 times in two weeks from the current 5 times in a month. 

"The unit is also the department which saw the most severe shortage of doctors due to its notoriously hectic workload," Siu added. "Very few young doctors are willing to enter ICU as their career nowadays."

At Kwai Ching's Princess Margaret Hospital, only 10 doctors serve the ICU.  These are the only ones who have completed the 7-year specialist training at the ICU in the past 10 years.  Many doctors had given up halfway through the training, to move to other departments or the private sector for better-paying jobs.

Siu had also criticized hospital authorities for ignoring calls to expand the ICU.  There are currently only 201 ICU beds at 15 pubic hospitals. The surge in the number of flu patients also hit other departments like the wards.  Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Yei has the highest occupancy rate at 118 percent. 

The Hong Kong government had been repeatedly urged to detail its contingency plans to protect the spread of virus, particularly during the Chinese New Year holiday, when thousands of tourists are expected to arrive from mainland China.

Tagswinter flu outbreak, Hong Kong, Flu, outbreak