Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ17: Manpower in public hospitals

     Following is a question by the Hon Chan Yuen-han and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (June 22):

Question :

     Regarding the manpower in public hospitals, will the Government inform this Council of:

(a) the respective numbers of medical practitioners employed on a temporary basis or short-term contracts in various hospital departments at present; and

(b) the respective numbers of persons in each grade who departed, in each of the past two years and to date this year, under the Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme implemented by the Hospital Authority or the second Voluntary Retirement Scheme implemented by the Government and, among them, the number of staff at management level?

Reply :

Madam President,

(a) There are currently 58 doctors on temporary employment (i.e. with a term of no more than one year) at the Hospital Authority (HA).  In the majority of the cases, the temporary doctors are engaged as Resident doctors to meet the service and operational needs that may arise between the scheduled annual intake of medical graduates in July each year.

(b) A total of 2,557 staff left the HA under its Voluntary Early Retirement Programme (VERP) or the Government's second Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VR II) over the past two years.  A breakdown of these staff by grade is given in the table below -

Staff group                        2003-04   2004-05     Total
Doctors                              86           12                 98
Nurses                                601         257               858
Allied Health                        80          21               101
Non-clinical Professionals    28            5                33
Supporting Staff                  1,285       182            1,467
Total                                  2,080       477            2,557

    Fifteen of the departed staff were at a pay level equivalent to that of a Government officer at the Director D1 level or above.  Only one of them was a senior staff with management responsibilities, and the remaining fourteen (14) were all clinical Consultants who were involved in the provision of direct patient care.  

     All participants of the two voluntary retirement schemes left the HA before the end of 2004-05.    

Ends/Wednesday, June 22, 2005

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