Stunning revelations have emerged regarding the mind-boggling workload of senior medical staff in our public hospitals just when we must cope with a growing population of elderly people who inevitably will require ongoing medical treatment in their final years.

Put in the plainest terms, medical staffers at public hospitals are falling asleep in operating theaters because they are dog-tired from an endless routine of overwork. Not only that, but many of these men and women holding scalpels are so exhausted they are even injuring themselves by mishandling sharp objects.

The problem is not confined simply to doctors but also embraces the highest levels of the medical profession — professors, consultants and associate consultants based in our hospitals.

There is nothing new about the problems of constant overwork and sleep deprivation among public hospital staff. Sadly it seems to be the fate of medical graduates who are imbued with the highest Hippocratic ideals and so choose to begin their careers in public hospitals.

But since Hong Kong’s economy has produced one government surplus after another for such a long period and new hospitals have sprung up on either side of the harbor, particularly in the new towns, we the ever-trusting public assumed that adequate staffing for hospitals had also kept pace with these new hospitals’ requirements.

The government’s development planning included a huge boost for educational facilities, with the result that more universities and post-secondary institutions are now available for nurturing the talents of our brightest young people, including those wishing to devote their lives to the many branches of medicine.

In light of this, it is paradoxical that the public hospital “sweatshops” of the bad old days are still being perpetuated.

Two studies by the Chinese University of Hong Kong have revealed a shameful record of how sleep deprivation among medical staff is widespread in our public medical facilities for the simple reason that they are understaffed.

Altogether, 599 senior medical staff and doctors were anonymously polled in 2012-13. Brace yourself for the answers they gave to a series of penetrating questions that reveal the severity of the enormous pressure under which short-staffed hospitals are forced to place their medical staff. No fewer than 40 percent reported that they worked more than 65 hours a week, while 38 percent said they worked between 50 and 65 hours a week.

Assuming they were given one day a week off, they would have been on duty an average of at least 10 hours per day for the other six days — minus, presumably, a brief meal break.

Asked whether they had dozed off briefly or even fallen asleep on their feet while examining patients, 13.6 percent admitted to such completely unprofessional failings not only while performing clinical rounds of the wards but during surgery.

And one in four of those polled admitted having suffered injuries from sharp objects while on duty, with 36 percent admitting to making medical errors or causing “incidents”.

In every case the main reason for these completely unacceptable mistakes was that the medico involved was staggering around half-asleep and unable to perform his or her duties because of the effects of accumulated sleep deprivation.

On top of this, even some of those medicos working less than 50 hours a week admitted dozing off or falling asleep while on duty, while 21.8 percent of them owned up to making medical errors or being responsible for “incidents”.

Secretary for Food and Health Ko Wing-man and his bureau must be aware of the realities of the tough slog that medicos face in public hospitals. After graduating from the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Medicine, Ko’s first posting was as an orthopedic surgeon at Princess Margaret Hospital in 1981. Later he moved on to the administrative side of government medical services.

One man acutely aware of the hospital medicos’ plight is Leung Ka-lau, who is the elected medical sector lawmaker in the Legislative Council. Back in 2006 he took the Hong Kong Hospital Authority to court to claim compensation on behalf of 165 public hospital doctors suing over unpaid work on rest days and public holidays, plus overtime.

The Court of First Instance delivered judgment in favor of the doctors regarding their work on rest days and public holidays, but not relating to overtime. The case ended with a victory for the medicos — the Hospital Authority demonstrated its culpability by offering HK$600 million in compensation to be shared among 4,000-odd doctors employed in our public hospitals.

That happened nine years ago, but obviously our medical authorities have permitted considerable backsliding over working conditions to return, creating the present very serious problem. The least it can do is to offer them a second dollop of hard cash. But more importantly, it should urgently recruit more doctors – not necessarily locally trained but qualified.