Prince of Wales Hospital is a large of Tertiary referral hospital and large of teaching hospital from Faculty of Medicine in Chinese University of Hong Kong in Sha Tin, New Territories in Hong Kong.. Named after Charles, Prince of Wales (now Charles III), and officially opened on 1 November 1982 by Katharine, Duchess of Kent, the hospital went into operation in 1 May 1984. The hospital now provides 1,807 hospital beds and 24-hour accident and emergency service with about 5,500 staff. It is also the regional hospital responsible for the Eastern New Territories serving Sha Tin, Tai Po, North New Territories, Sai Kung and the outlying islands in East New Territories. The hospital is supported by the Li Ka-shing Specialist Clinics for specialty outpatient services. The Hospital Governing Committee is the ultimate decision-making authority of the hospital. The current chief executive of the hospital is Dr. Beatrice Cheng. History Planning and construction In 1974, the Hong Kong government proposed the development of the second medical school in the territory (the first being University of Hong Kong) and a new teaching hospital in Sha Tin, and that became the Faculty of Medicine of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Prince of Wales Hospital. The construction of the Prince of Wales Hospital started on 1 December 1979, scheduled to be completed by September 1982, and be operational by May 1983. The plan was to allow the first batch of medical students admitted in October 1981 to start their clinical training at the hospital in July 1983. Unfortunately, the construction was delayed by a year, the hospital was finally completed in November 1983 and went into operation on 1 May 1984. Despite the delay and change of the schedule, the official opening ceremony was held on 1 November 1982 as originally planned. It was performed by Katharine, Duchess of Kent. Due to the delay, temporary arrangements were made with United Christian Hospital for clinical teaching of the first batch of medical students, and the teaching activities were gradually transferred from United Christian Hospital to Prince of Wales Hospital. Early years In 1991, under a reform of the healthcare system, the management of the hospital (and other public hospitals) was transferred from the former Medical and Health Department to the Hospital Authority. Until the mid-1990s, the hospital was responsible for providing medical services to the nearly 25,000 Vietnamese boat people at Whitehead Detention