Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ10: Medical services provided by hospital clusters
Following is a question by the Hon Albert Ho and a written reply by the
Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council
today (December 7):
Question:
Regarding the medical services provided by the Hospital Authority through the
various hospital clusters, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the current populations served by individual hospital clusters, their
respective numbers of general beds, doctors and nurses per 1,000 persons, as
well as the amount of provisions for each cluster;
(b) of the reasons for the cluster, which currently has the smallest numbers of
beds and medical and nursing staff per 1,000 persons as well as the smallest
amount of provisions, being given fewer resources than other clusters, and the
number of additional medical and nursing staff and the amount of additional
resources required for upgrading the services provided by this cluster to the
average standard of individual clusters; and
(c) whether it plans to improve the services provided by the hospital cluster
which is most short of resources and to extend the hospitals in that cluster; if
so, of the details of the plan; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President:
(a) The population within the geographical boundary of each hospital cluster of
the Hospital Authority (HA), the number of general beds, doctors and nurses per
1,000 population in each cluster, and the funding allocation for each cluster
are given in the table.
(b) The variances in the ratios of beds and clinical staff to population among
different hospital clusters can be attributed to two main factors. First, the
provision of certain specialized services is currently centralized in only one
or a few centres for better clinical outcomes and more effective deployment of
expertise. Examples of these specialized services include prenatal diagnosis,
cardiothoracic surgery and organ transplant. While the resources for these
specialized centres are allocated to the cluster where they are geographically
located, their services cater for the entire population of Hong Kong. Secondly,
patients are allowed to seek medical attention in any hospital other than those
in their own residential districts. There is a considerable amount of
cross-cluster utilization of hospital services due to various reasons. For
instance, hospitals with a longer history tend to have a larger pool of patients
from another cluster, who are reluctant to switch to a hospital closer to home.
Some patients may also prefer to receive treatment in a hospital close to their
work place or near the home of a next-of-kin for greater convenience. For the
reasons above, the HA do not determine the allocation of resources to hospital
clusters on the basis of specific bed or staff to population ratios.
(c) When determining the amount of funding that should be allocated to each
cluster, the HA will need to take into account a whole range of factors. Apart
from the population within the catchment area of the cluster, the HA considers
also factors such as the medical services and specialized services that are
being provided in that cluster as well as the characteristics of the population
in the cluster.
Considering the increasing service demand in the New Territories West (NTW)
Cluster, the HA has increased resources for the cluster in the past few years.
Amidst reduction in resources allocated to all other clusters over the same
period, the NTW Cluster received additional funding allocation from $3.195
billion for 2002-03 to $3.255 billion for 2005-06. Furthermore, an additional
262 and 512 beds will be provided to the Pok Oi Hospital and Tuen Mun Hospital
when the relevant redevelopment and construction works will be completed by end
2006 and early 2008 respectively.
Ends/Wednesday, December 7, 2005
Issued at HKT 14:12
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Table to LCQ10