Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ9: Number of "injury while on duty" cases in HA
Following is a question by the Dr Hon Joseph Lee and a written reply by the
Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council
today (May 11):
Question :
It was reported that during the four-and-a-half years since 2000, there were a
total of over 5,000 cases of injuries sustained by public hospital staff while
they were conducting manual handling operations, representing 25 per cent of the
overall figure of work injury in public hospitals in the same period. Moreover,
64 per cent and 30 per cent of the staff injured were frontline support services
staff and nurses respectively. In this connection, will the Government inform
this Council if it knows:
(a) the number of work injuries in public hospitals in each of the past five
years, with a breakdown by the relevant causes and conditions of the injured;
(b) the respective numbers of various types of technical aids for manual
handling operations procured in the past five years for various public hospitals
and the existing numbers of such aids, their utilization rates, as well as the
ratios of the number of staff required to operate such aids to the number of
such aids;
(c) whether the Hospital Authority (HA) has assessed the impact of work injury
cases on the workload of frontline staff, the quality of public medical services
and the injured staff; if it has, of the assessment results;
(d) whether HA has assessed the effectiveness of its Manual Handling Accidents
Prevention Campaign launched last year and the introduction of the relevant
safety guidelines on the reduction in such work accidents; if it has, of the
assessment results;
(e) whether HA has set a target number of reduction in work injury cases for the
coming three years; if it has, of that number; and
(f) whether HA has assessed if the shortage in nursing manpower is one of the
causes for nurses getting injured at work; if it has and the results are
affirmative, of the short-term or long-term measures to be adopted by the
authorities to relieve the shortage?
Reply :
Madam President,
(a) The number of "injury while on duty (or IOD)" cases resulting from manual
handling operations, which have been reported for employees' compensation
purposes, in the past five years are provided in the table below -
Year
Numbers of IOD Cases
2000
1,096
2001
1,120
2002
1,130
2003
1,115
2004
1,192
The injuries suffered by staff members in these cases are mostly sprains &
strains and back injuries. The Hospital Authority (HA) does not have a
consolidated record of detailed case breakdown by individual causes or by the
severity of injuries sustained.
(b) Since its establishment in 1990, the HA has been improving the provision of
appropriate manual handling tools and equipment in public hospitals. These
improvements included a massive replacement of non-height-adjustable hospital
beds by height-adjustable ones and the purchase of various manual handling
devices like hoists, lifting/transfer aids, etc. Between January 2000 and March
2005, the HA purchased a total of 15,138 pieces of manual handling operation (MOH)
equipment. A breakdown of these purchases by hospital cluster are given in the
table below -
Clusters
Quantity of MOH equipment purchased between Jan 2000 and Mar 2005
HKEC
2,153
HKWC
969
KCC
2,759
KEC
2,326
KWC
1,302
NTEC
3,106
NTWC
2,541
Total: 15,138
The provision and utilisation of essential MHO equipment/appliance in an HA
workplace depends on a number of factors, which include the nature of its daily
operation, the specialty of the ward concerned and the level of dependency of
its patients. The transfer/lifting devices will be used frequently in a busy
medical ward, but the HA does not routinely collate information on the
utilisation of such equipment. In addition, the "staff-to-equipment" ratio is
not a factor of consideration in determining the provision of MHO
equipment/appliance. Such ratios are not routinely collated by the HA.
(c) HA has all along adopted a "Caring for the Carers" approach in delivering
its services. Continuous efforts have been made to provide the frontline staff
with the necessary support and to ensure that there is effective communication
between them and the management. Each HA hospital conducts risk assessment and
case analysis periodically to monitor the trend of injury on duty cases and has
strengthened through the years management efforts in investigating the causes
and improving the work design, processes and related workplace environment where
appropriate. The HA does not have any evidence suggesting that the existing
trend of IOD cases has an adverse effect on the quality of patient care.
(d) While the relevant planning work started in 2004, the Manual Handling Injury
Prevention Programme was not officially launched until April this year. In
preparation for the launching of this programme, the HA reviewed its manual
handling operations management practices in late 2004. A number of enhancement
initiatives have been launched under the Prevention Programme in early 2005,
with a view to minimising the occurrence of IOD incidents arising from manual
handling operations in public hospitals. These enhancement measures include -
(i) establishment of a multi-disciplinary working group to steer the design and
implementation of enhancement measures under the Prevention Programme;
(ii) implementation of a promotion programme to foster a behavioural-based
safety culture in manual handling operations;
(iii) redevelopment of the Manual Handling Operations Guidelines & Protocols and
the relevant risk assessment tools;
(iv) launching of training and education programmes on back to basics and
advanced courses in manual handling operations; and
(v) conducting pre- and post-improvement surveys on staff members' knowledge,
perception and attitude of manual handling operations. The post-implementation
survey, which will conducted in June 2006, will assist the HA in evaluating the
overall effectiveness of the Prevention Programme.
(e) HA aims to reduce IOD incidents arising from manual handling operations as
far as possible. The HA has a tentative target of reducing the number of such
incidents by 10-20 per cent within the next three years.
(f) A review on HA's IOD incidents revealed that the leading causes of injuries
are the inaccurate perception of risks by the injured staff, insufficient safety
awareness by them, and their non-compliance with the relevant work procedures.
To reduce the number of IOD incidents, the HA has implemented a behavioural-based
safety management programme in all HA hospitals. The HA has also put in place a
mechanism in its hospitals for the deployment / redeployment of the necessary
nursing manpower to meet service needs.
Ends/Wednesday, May 11, 2005
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