Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ13: Elderly health centres
Following is a question by the Hon Emily Lau and a written reply by the
Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council
today (April 27):
Question :
The 18 elderly health centres under the Department of Health provide their
members with services of physical check up, health assessment, counselling,
curative treatment and health education. In this connection, will the Executive
Authorities inform this Council :
(a) of the number of new members enrolled at each centre in the past three years
and the current number of members each centre has;
(b) of the criteria for determining these centres' membership size, and whether
such sizes are adjusted from time to time in accordance with the changes in the
elderly population in the districts served by the centres; if not, the reasons
for that;
(c) of the number of persons waiting for enrolment as members at present, the
average waiting time for enrolment at each centre as well as the average
territory-wide waiting time;
(d) whether they have reviewed the effectiveness of the services provided by the
centres; if so, of the review results; and
(e) whether they have plans to allocate additional resources, or re-deploy
existing resources, for expanding the scope of services provided by the centres
and shortening the waiting time for the elderly to enrol as members; if so, of
the details of the plan; if not, the reasons for that?
Answer :
Madam President,
The Government is providing elderly with a range of public health care and
medical services, including primary, secondary and tertiary health care.
Among them, the Elderly Health Services of the Department of Health (DH) is
tasked with the responsibility of enhancing primary health care to the elderly,
improving their self-care ability, encouraging healthy living, and strengthening
family support with a view to minimising illnesses and disability. Services are
delivered through the 18 Elderly Health Centres (EHCs) and 18 Visiting Health
Teams (VHTs). EHCs operate on a membership basis, providing elderly members
primarily with health assessment, physical check ups, counselling, and curative
treatment. VHTs reach out into the community and residential care homes for the
elderly in collaboration with other care providers to carry out health education
on elders and carers. They also carry out influenza vaccination programme for
elderly residing in institutions. In 2004-05, EHCs handled about 199 000
attendances for health assessments and medical consultation. There were about
440 000 attendances at the health education activities organised by EHCs and
VHTs in the same year.
In view of an ageing population, the popularity of EHC services, and the very
reasonable membership fee of EHCs at about $110 per elderly per annum, there is
huge demand for EHC services. Given limitation in public resources, EHCs alone
will not be sufficient to address the health care needs of the elderly. All the
stakeholders have to work together to take concerted efforts to meet the varying
needs of the elderly through various measures and services.
Apart from DH's efforts in providing primary health care to elders, there are
more than 70 general out-patient clinics run by the Hospital Authority (HA)
which provide general medical services to members of the public. Elderly is one
of the major users of these clinics. Private practitioners are also key
providers of primary health care. On health promotion, more than 200 elderly
centres of various nature run by non-government organisations with Government
subsidy are also helping to promote health care among the elderly. To synergize
efforts, DH is collaborating with some of them, to train them to use health
assessment tools to conduct health assessments for their elderly members under a
trial scheme. Also, DH is collaborating with other stakeholders to enhance
family medicine training on elderly care for general practitioners and family
doctors.
Our replies to the specific questions raised by the Hon Emily Lau are as below:
(a) In 2004-05, the 18 EHCs altogether had about 39 900 members. Each EHC has
more or less the same number of members. In the past three years, about 14 per
cent of the total number of EHC members in that year were new members.
(b) At present, all the EHCs have approximately the same membership size. There
will be substantial resource implications to DH to adjust the membership size of
the EHCs in accordance with the changes in the elderly population in the
districts they are serving. As mentioned above, it is not practical to solely
rely upon EHCs to address the health care needs of the elderly. We need to
involve other stakeholders in providing primary health care to the elderly.
(c) As at December 2004, about 25 000 elders were waiting for enrolment as EHC
members. The waiting time for EHC membership varied from district to district.
The median waiting time was 26 months.
(d) DH conducted an in-house customer satisfaction survey on the services of the
EHCs in 2001. The survey interviewed about 680 members and ex-members of the
EHCs. About 90 per cent of the respondents indicated that they were satisfied or
very satisfied with the EHC service.
(e) DH has been deploying resources to the EHCs as far as possible to cater for
the needs of the elderly. As explained above, EHCs alone will not be sufficient
to address the health care needs of the elderly. All the stakeholders have to
work together to take concerted efforts to meet the varying needs of the elderly
through various measures and services. In particular, private medical
practitioners can have a bigger role to play in preventive care of the elderly
in the community. In this regard, DH will continue to collaborate with other
stakeholders with a view to enhancing family medicine training on elderly care
for general practitioners and family doctors.
Ends/Wednesday, April 27, 2005
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