Press Releases

Trust Fund for SARS ready to receive applications

The Trust Fund for SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) is ready to receive applications starting from Thursday (November 13).

The $150 million trust fund was set up by the Government and approved by the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council last Friday (November 7). On the same day, the membership of a committee to advise on the operation of the fund and a review committee to consider appeals by aggrieved applicants was announced. 

The Committee on Trust Fund for SARS, chaired by Dr David Fang and comprising four unofficial members, held its first meeting this evening to discuss the application procedures and eligibility criteria.

The Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, who met with members prior to the meeting, thanked members for contributing their time and wise counsel to the work of the committee.

"I believe members will appreciate the unique and unprecedented nature of the SARS outbreak early this year, which leave behind dependent families who may need financial support in addition to special help to overcome their traumatic experience. 

"There may also be some recovered SARS patients and some 'suspected' SARS patients treated with steroids who may have suffered from the longer term effects caused by the disease or the treatment of steroids (if any), and hence resulted in a loss of income or an increase in expenditure.

"Despite the various continuous support that we have been providing to these families and patients, there are circumstances where the then existing channels of support cannot fully address their needs. The trust fund is to address this gap and serve as tide-over assistance to the eligible patients," Dr Yeoh said.

A spokesman for the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau noted the trust fund would provide special ex-gratia payments or financial assistance to the following eligible applicants:

* For deceased SARS patients, special ex-gratia relief payments would be made to their families with surviving spouse ($200,000); dependent child(ren) ($500,000 each for those under 18, and $300,00 each for those between 18 and below 21 in full time studies); dependent parent(s) ($300,000 for each dependent parent); and those not falling into any of the above category but meeting certain criteria ($100,000 for each family). No financial eligibility test will be imposed for this group of applicants.

* For recovered SARS patients or "suspected" SARS patients treated with steroids, the financial assistance would be capped at $500,000 for each patient. It would comprise a monthly financial assistance and reimbursement for medical expenditure. Applications are subject to medical assessment and applications for monthly financial assistance are also subject to financial test. Besides, medical assessment would be carried out every six months on these patients to monitor their health conditions and review their need for continued financial assistance.

The spokesman noted applications should be relatively straight forward for the deceased cases. The Social Welfare Department (SWD) would contact those families with deceased patients for the completion of applications which would then be assessed and recommended to the committee for consideration. 

For the recovered and "suspected" SARS patients, the spokesman said a three-step application procedure has been put in place:

(a) declaration of income loss or increased expenditure by an applicant;
(b) medical assessment by the Hospital Authority (HA) to identify/confirm any relevant dysfunction; and 
(c) financial assessment by SWD to verify the financial needs and recommend the level of monthly financial assistance.

The committee would consider the merits of each application, on the basis of the assessment and recommendation of HA and SWD, to advise the Government on the eligibility and level of assistance for each patient, the spokesman said.

A notification letter would be sent to the recovered and "suspected" SARS patients, the spokesman added.

Starting from Thursday (November 13), application forms will be available at the post-SARS clinics of HA and the Medical Social Services Units of SWD. They can also be downloaded from the websites of SWD at http://www.info.gov.hk/swd, of the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau at http://www.hwfb.gov.hk, of the HA at http://www.ha.org.hk and of the Department of Health at http://www.info.gov.hk/dh. 

SWD has also set up a dedicated hotline (telephone number: 2892 5562) to answer any enquiries relating to applications for the trust fund. The line will be answered by social workers from 9 am to 5 pm from Monday to Friday, and from 9 am to 12 pm on Saturday. Enquiries can be faxed to 2893 6903.

Ends/Tuesday, November 11, 2003
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