The Hospital Authority (HA) sent the fifth batch of six healthcare workers to Chengdu yesterday morning. Some of them have had taken part in the rescue operations in South Asia that was ravaged by a tsunami in 2004 and a traffic accident in Egypt that involved Hong Kong residents.

Returning to Hong Kong yesterday afternoon after visiting the Hong Kong medical team in Chengdu, HA chairman Anthony Wu said the need for orthopedic surgeons has eased but there is a growing need for psychological counselors and healthcare workers who have experience in handling infectious diseases.

The day before, the Hong Kong medical team was training local counselors to provide counseling to the victims.

So far, over 50 healthcare workers have been deployed to the scene and 44 of them are still there. Some of them will come home tomorrow.

Having discussed with the Ministry of Health officials, Wu said the HA will deploy more healthcare workers to the quake-shattered zones whenever needed.

Several journalists shared their experience in the quake-hit areas at a sharing session yesterday attended by several hundred teachers, students and parents.

Ming Pao Daily reporter Liang Su-kuang said he was among the second batch of reporters to head to Sichuan on May 14. He flew to the neighboring city of Chongqing before proceeding to Chengdu by car because the Chengdu airport was closed.

As many roads were broken, reporters had to walk an average of over 50 kilometers a day.

"In a big disaster like this, touching, heroic stories were everywhere," he said.

Liang told the session a story experienced by another reporter from a Hong Kong newspaper.

Mourning the death of her son in a hospital, a woman begged the reporter to take a photo of her son's dead body for her husband, who was working in another province at the time of the quake, to see.

"I am most saddened that many teachers and pupils had died," said Liang. "It seemed the hopes of the whole villages died with them."

When asked if he had second thoughts before heading to the scene, he said he volunteered to undertake the mission and it is every reporter's wish to offer first-hand accounts of a huge disaster like this one.

On the same occasion, Ho Hon-kuen, vice-chairman of Education Convergence that co-organized the sharing session, said that although this is a very difficult time, the disaster has brought the mainland and Hong Kong closer together.

(HK Edition 05/27/2008 page1)