Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ3: Services of public hospitals in Hong Kong
Following is a question by the Dr Hon Kwok Ka-ki and a reply by the Secretary
for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today
(December 7):
Question:
Some front line doctors of the Hospital Authority (HA) have reflected to me that
HA is considering restructuring the services of public hospitals in Hong Kong.
This has upset its staff and affected their morale. Regarding the services
provided by public hospitals, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether HA is restructuring the various services of public hospitals,
including accident and emergency services; if so, of the reasons for the
restructuring; the services that need to be restructured due to under- or over-utilisation;
and the arrangements being made at present, findings of the reviews conducted
and the relevant data in relation to the restructuring of services;
(b) of the utilisation rate of the main services of various public hospitals in
Hong Kong over the past three years, broken down by disease; and
(c) of the resources that had been cut by HA during the past three years for
Ruttonjee Hospital, Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital and other hospitals in
relation to hospital services, staffing and funding, etc; and whether HA has
assessed the impact of the reductions on clinical services?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) At present, the Hospital Authority (HA) has no plan to restructure the
services of public hospitals in Hong Kong. I understand that the HA did engage
in a discussion on the future direction of public hospital services recently in
response to the recommendations of the Health and Medical Development Advisory
Committee as set out in the Discussion Paper entitled "Building a Healthy
Tomorrow". However, the HA has not carried out any assessment or conducted any
study in respect of any proposal to restructure hospital services including the
services of Accident & Emergency Departments.
(b) The HA does not have a break down of the statistical data on the utilisation
rate of hospital services by disease. The usual practice at the HA is to monitor
the utilisation of its inpatient service through the bed occupancy rates. Over
the past three years (i.e. 2002-03, 2003-03 and 2004-05), the overall bed
occupancy rate at public hospitals was 83.2%, 74.4% and 82.5% respectively. The
lower rate in 2003-04 was due to the effect of the outbreak of the Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome that year.
A detailed breakdown of the bed occupancy rate at public hospitals by specialty
is at Annex A.
(c) The Government's financial provision for the HA in the past three years was
$29.5 billion, $28.2 billion and $27.3 billion respectively. The HA determines
how the Government's financial provision and HA's own income revenue are to be
allocated to the hospital clusters, taking into account the medical services
provided by each cluster, the population within the catchment area of the
cluster and the characteristics of that population. As for the funding
allocation to individual hospitals, it is a decision to be made at the cluster
level. Over the past three years, HA's funding allocation to Ruttonjee Hospital
(RH) was $617 million, $594 million and $573 million respectively, which was in
line with the drop in the Government's overall financial provision to HA. The
funding allocation to Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital (AHMLNH) over the
same period was $810 million, $771 million and $778 million, the drop rate of
which was less than that of the Government's overall financial provision.
The manpower in clinical and other staff of the two hospitals has remained
largely stable over the past three years, although there was a more notable
change in the number of doctors at AHMLNH. The main reason for that change was
the reorganisation of some specialised services within the New Territories East
(NTW) Cluster. The Surgery and Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O&G) Departments of
AHMLNH was transferred to North District Hospital and Prince of Wales Hospital
respectively, while specialised services in Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT), Eye, and
Paediatrics were added. The above reorganisation has made no impact on the
overall level of specialised service within the NTE cluster. In fact, the total
number of doctors within the cluster has increased over the past three years
from 813 to 858. A breakdown of the number of staff at RN and AHMLNH for the
past three years is at Annex B.
Ends/Wednesday, December 7, 2005
Issued at HKT 12:50
NNNN
Annexes to LCQ3