A private Hong Kong hospital withheld information about suspected SARS cases from authorities and patients, an independent inquiry reported yesterday.

The hospital grappled with a mini-outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome which spread from patients to relatives and staff members.

A female kidney patient is suspected to have been the first SARS patient admitted. Two nurses, six patients and five relatives then caught the disease.

Of the 11 affected people, three patients died in the April-May outbreak on the ninth floor of Hong Kong's Baptist Hospital.

An independent commission, appointed by the hospital's board of directors, said yesterday hospital officials delayed informing the Health Department and patients about the presence of suspected SARS cases.

But the commission's report fell short of blaming the outbreak on the hospital's suppression of information.

In one incident, the com-mission found the hospital was not forthcoming when one patient, who admitted himself for a head injury, asked about the risk of contracting the illness. The patient later died of SARS.

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