Page 62 - HKU Surgery 110 Anniversary E-Book

Chapter III. Putting Hong Kong Surgery on the World Map
A Different Culture
The heavy patient load and manpower
shortage meant new graduates and
junior staff had to pick up the slack
and perform procedures that would be
unthinkable today.
“When I was a houseman, we were
allowed to do an appendectomy
depending on how able and keen we
were. You might do 10 or more by the
time you finished. We also assisted
surgeons or senior surgeons to do curve is longer,” he said.
more difficult operations. That sort
of experience doesn’t happen today.
Housemen in their first year after
graduation rotate through many
things and they have a lot of non-
clinical work, like writing up patient
history. And nobody would dare give
a junior something like appendix
removal in case they get sued,” said
Professor KH Lam, who graduated in
1970.
Professor William Wei, who graduated
in 1974, found there was freedom
to just get on with things because
basically there was no one else to do
the job. “When you start surgery,
62 | Department of Surgery 110 Anniversary
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Patients under Orders
Patient consent was cursory in the would undergo one of Ong’s radical
1960s, 1970s and even later, when
operations:
many patients were poorly educated
and from low-income backgrounds “The patient was shaking and said,
you do whatever feels comfortable. A (Hong Kong did not introduce ‘Professor Ong, I don’t think I can go
patient arrives in the middle of the compulsory education until the through with this’. GB said to him,
night with a lacerated face, and if 1970s). The senior nurse would ‘You need this operation’. The patient
you feel comfortable to suture it, you inform patients when it was their said, ‘I can’t have it. I won’t have it’.
do. You don’t have to call for a senior. day to be operated on and that was GB said, ‘You will have it’. Then the
When I was houseman, there were not about it. Surgeons would decide the patient said, ‘Even if I die, I won’t have
many surgeons on call at night. I best treatment. And if the surgeon this operation.’ And Professor Ong
was even taught how to do a c-section. was GB Ong, there was no room for roared back, ‘Even if you die, I will
Nowadays you have to be a specialist. questions, as Professor John Boey operate on you!’ That was consent.
Everything is protocol training. In a witnessed when a patient was told he Those were cowboy days.”
way that’s good, but then the learning
The downside of this approach was
the huge workload. House Officers Professor CH Leong was the third member (after
were on-call every two to three days Professors F Stock and GB Ong) of the Department
with no compensation leave on top to be invited to deliver the Hunterian Lecture at
of their regular duties; their lives the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
became work-sleep-work. “It was a
very busy life. I lost 10 pounds [4.5
kilos] in my first three months. But
you turn into someone with a sense
of responsibility,” said Professor
Paul Tam, who graduated in the late
1970s. The intense life also promoted
a sense of camaraderie among staff.
Professor Simon Law (left), Professor Leong Che-Hung (middle),
and Professor Albert Chan (right) at the black-tie dinner of the
Inaugural Lecture of Leong Che-Hung Distinguished Visiting
Professorship in Leadership on 28 February 2025.
Department of Surgery 110 Anniversary | 63
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