Established in 1975, Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) is an acute hospital in the Kowloon West Cluster (KWC) of Hospital Authority (HA). It provides a comprehensive range of acute, specialist and ambulatory services, including 24-hour accident and emergency service. The Lai King Building (LKB), established in 2001, is an off-site facility of PMH providing convalescent, rehabilitation and infirmary in-patient services.
With an ever-increasing elderly population aged 65 or above in KWC, the demand for comprehensive medical care has grown, especially for convalescent and infirmary support. The heavy service need and utilization have aggravated the existing limited capacity of PMH. Moreover, the design of PMH is over 40 years old and lags behind the service standard of a modern acute hospital. With heavy utilization throughout the decades, upgrade of building services systems to address the physical conditions and structural capacity of the hospital buildings has been hindered. Besides, clinical blocks are scattered over the hospital site as a result of piecemeal development in the past while the existing PMH compound is packed with more than ten building blocks, leaving no room for further expansion. The unsatisfactory geographical location and connectivity among buildings have also undermined the development of PMH.
Underpinned by the master development plan for the redevelopment of PMH, the hospital will be renewed to modernize its facilities to cope with the growing clinical service demand. To make available the redevelopment site, additional space and floor areas are required for decanting the existing services and supporting accommodation. In addition to facilitating the decanting of existing services in PMH, the proposed expansion of LKB aims to enhance its ambulatory care services to reduce unnecessary hospitalization and to ensure that its facilities comply with the infection control and service standards in modern healthcare settings.
The expansion project is being implemented in three works stages, namely preparatory works, site formation and foundation works, and main works. The scope comprises:
- demolition of the existing structure at the rehabilitation garden and transformer room;
- construction of a new extension block at the existing rehabilitation garden and car park of LKB;
- refurbishment, alteration and addition of the existing building;
- construction of a link bridge connecting the new extension block and the existing building; and
- external and landscaping works.
The preparatory works of the expansion project commenced in December 2019. The site formation and foundation works commenced in August 2021.
