Exhausted doctors and nurses are camping out in Hong Kong government hospitals, too afraid to go home. Isolation wards are overflowing. Essential surgery is being delayed.
The territory's public healthcare system, one of the most advanced in Asia, has been overwhelmed by a deadly respiratory virus. And, according to doctors and administrators, the worst is yet to come.
The government is bracing for up to 3,000 people infected with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) by the end of this month, more than three times the number now.
"Some SARS cases are not even being placed in isolation wards and the possibility of cross infection is very great," said Mr Henry Yeung of the Hong Kong Doctors Union.
"Some patients with brain tumors have had their operations delayed, the same with a lot of other important surgeries."
Many patients have been forced to go to private clinics, which themselves have been swamped by people turning up with coughs and sniffles.
Some doctors have been sending anyone with suspicious symptoms straight to public hospitals instead of doing preliminary screening, adding to the load.
"Our resources are already in shortage and it will be worse further down the road," said Mr Leung Ka-lau, who heads the Hong Kong Public Doctors Association.
Several doctors said intensive care units have been stretched far beyond capacity.
Hong Kong has been hardest hit by SARS after mainland China, where the disease surfaced in the southern province of Guangdong. Nearly 900 people in the territory have been infected and 23 have died.
Ten to 20 per cent of SARS patients end up in intensive care.