Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ10: Service provided by Pok Oi Hospital
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 21):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council:
(a) when the redeveloped Pok Oi Hospital will officially resume full operation;
(b) whether accident and emergency (A&E) service will be provided by Pok Oi
Hospital immediately upon resumption of its full operation; if so, of the
measures taken by the Hospital Authority (HA) to ensure the smooth provision of
A&E service by the hospital; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c) of the arrangements to be made by HA for the staff of Pok Oi Hospital
deployed to other hospitals during its redevelopment, and whether there is a
need to recruit additional medical and nursing staff for the hospital; if so, of
the number of additional staff involved; if not, how HA will ensure that there
will be adequate staff to cater for the additional services to be provided by
Pok Oi Hospital following resumption of its full operation?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The redevelopment of Pok Oi Hospital (POH) has been progressing smoothly.
According to the current progress, the Hospital Authority (HA) expects that the
new POH building will come into partial operation after mid-2006 to accommodate
the patients in need of extended care who will be relocated from the old
hospital building so as to clear the way for the demolition works. It is
expected that upon redevelopment, the POH will resume full operation in phases
starting from the third quarter of 2007.
(b) The HA will conduct acceptance inspection first on the accident and
emergency (A&E) facilities to ensure that A&E service can be put into operation
in the third quarter of 2007 as scheduled.
(c) During the redevelopment period, staff members of the POH either continue to
work in the old hospital building or are re-deployed to other hospitals under
the New Territories West Cluster of the HA. The HA is now making necessary
arrangements, including staff deployment, to prepare for POH's resumption of
full operation upon completion of the redevelopment works. According to the
existing plan, the POH will have an establishment of about 600 staff after its
resumption of operation in 2007, representing a slight increase over that before
the redevelopment. The HA will, in the light of service demand, consider
deploying additional staff to the hospital.
Ends/Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Issued at HKT 12:29
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