A seven-months-pregnant nurse is currently under intensive care after she collapsed while working a night shift at Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam.
According to Apple Daily, the nurse, who is 30 weeks pregnant, fainted earlier this week while working the night shift alone. Following her collapse, doctors reportedly found that the nurse had burst blood vessels, but said it was difficult to tell whether they had caused her to faint.
The nurse’s condition has improved slightly, but she remains in the intensive care unit. Her foetus is also reported to be in stable condition.
Chairman of the Association of Hong Kong Nursing Staff, Joseph Lee, told Apple Daily that there have been at least three recorded complaints from nurses who felt unwell during night shifts recently.
Lee said that the association had been asking the Hospital Authority (HA) to relax its policies for pregnant nurses at public hospitals since 2014. At the moment, some public hospitals require nurses to keep working night shifts until their 36th week of pregnancy, while others are exempt at 28 weeks.
The HA has reportedly formed a task force to investigate the possibility of excusing nurses from night shifts during their 32nd week of pregnancy.
Some nurses allegedly complained on a Facebook group for medical staff that they didn’t want to be excluded from night shift duty if they became pregnant. Currently, nurses are given monetary compensation if they take more than one night shift during a seven-day period.
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