Water leak during eye surgery at Hong Kong teaching hospital prompts probe

Hong Kong health authorities have demanded an investigation into a teaching hospital run by a local university after evidence emerged of water leaking from the ceiling of an operating theatre during eye surgery.

In a statement on Sunday, the Department of Health said the incident took place on March 10 at an operating theatre of the CUHK Medical Centre in Sha Tin, a private teaching hospital run by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, which opened in 2021 after a government loan of HK$4 billion (US$514 million) and a total investment of HK$6 billion.

At one point, doctors and medical staff had to prevent the patient from getting wet by covering her in a cloth.

“It was noted that the hospital had conducted an eye surgery on a patient on March 10 and, towards the end of the surgery, water started dripping from the ceiling towards the end of the operating table,” the department statement said.

“The hospital staff immediately used a cloth to stop the dripping and at the same time covered the patient’s head and surgical instruments with a sterile surgical drape.”

The incident was only made known to the public after a local media report on Sunday. It was reportedly not the first instance of leaks occurring in the hospital’s operating theatres.

In Sunday’s statement, the department said it was told that the March 10 surgery was completed “uneventfully”, and that the patient’s condition had been “stable” and “no complications had been reported”.