Another pro-establishment lawmaker, Ben Chan Han-pan, of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), has been named as allegedly using his position to gain preferential healthcare treatment by requesting special arrangements for his wife when she was in hospital to deliver a child.
The incident was reported on the Facebook page “HA Secret,” which previously revealed that Tam Yiu-chung, the former chairman of the DAB, was allowed to jump the queue and receive special treatment for an ear polyp operation.
Tam later apologised for the incident, bowing three times in front of the reporters’ stand at the Legislative Council last Friday morning.
Chan allegedly used his position to allow his wife to give birth in “a hospital known for its maternity services in the Kowloon West network” and to ask that a specific consultant would follow up on his wife. Chan said previously that his wife had given birth in Kwong Wah hospital.
His wife was also reportedly allowed to stay in a private room and to receive personal care for the basic cost of0 HK$100 per day.
Speaking with Apple Daily, Chan denied allegations that he received special treatment and said that “We did whatever the doctor told us and we did not have any special requests.” He also denied allegations that he requested a private room and that he treated front-line medical staff badly.
Chan also said: “I followed the procedures and I thought about going to a private hospital, but her condition meant that the private hospital did not recommend we transfer there.”
Leung Wing-cheong, the consultant obstetrician who looked after Chan’s wife told Ming Pao that Chan’s wife had a condition involving her placenta and needed following up.
A spokesperson for Kwong Wah Hospital said in a statement that the hospital “does not provide any private services” and that “the hospital does not make special arrangements for anybody, and the arrangements are made according to the needs of the expectant mothers.”
