Press Releases

Increased spending on health, welfare services pledged

The Government pledges to increase the recurrent spending on health and welfare services in 1999/2000 despite the current economic climate, the Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Katherine Fok, said.

Speaking at a press conference today (Saturday), Mr Fok said that in the coming year, the Government proposed to spend $30.2 billion on health care and $29.1 billion on welfare services. These represent an increase of 3.5 per cent and 14.1 per cent respectively over the corresponding figures for 1998/1999.

Of the $30.2 billion for health care services, $2.6 billion are earmarked for the Department of Health and $27.3 billion for the Hospital Authority, as compared with $2.4 billion and $26.4 billion respectively in 1998/1999.

Mrs Fok said the Department of Health would further improve the Government's ability in monitoring infectious diseases. "The Department will collect information on infectious diseases from more sources, enhance liaison with overseas/Mainland disease surveillance centres, expedite in tracing the source of outbreaks, and strengthen the pathology service and laboratory support.

"These improvements will enable the Government to take effective and timely measures to curb spreading of diseases and to provide adequate advice to the public," she said.

Funds have also been provided for additional staff to tighten up the control and inspection of food, conduct food sample testing, and promote among food traders and the public the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point System which is a new food safety system widely promoted by renowned international authorities, including the World Health Organisation.

For the elderly, Mrs Fok said six additional elderly health centres and six visiting health teams would be established by early 2000 to enhance the provision of primary health care services, including physical check-ups, health education and curative care. The total spending on elderly health service amounts to $160 million in the next financial year.

The recurrent expenditure for the Hospital Authority will be increased by 3.6 per cent - from $26.4 billion in 1998/1999 to $27.3 billion in 1999/2000. The Government also proposes to incur about $3.5 billion in non-recurrent expenditure over the next five years on hospital improvement projects.

New initiatives during the year include the commissioning of over 970 new acute general, infirmary, and psychiatric beds; 40 geriatric day places; and 40 psychiatric day places.

As regards new hospitals, Mrs Fok said the Tai Po Hospital and the North District Hospital had already come into operation. In the pipeline are Tseung Kwan O Hospital and Kowloon Rehabilitation Centre, both to commence operation next year; and Lai King Hospital which is scheduled for completion in mid-2000, she added.

Funds have been earmarked to redevelop and improve some existing hospitals. These include the expansion of Pok Oi Hospital to provide 272 additional beds; the establishment of an Ambulatory Surgery Centre at the Prince of Wales Hospital and a Radiotherapy Centre at the Princess Margaret Hospital; and the relocation of the Accident and Emergency Department from the Tang Shiu Kin Hospital to the Ruttonjee Hospital.

"With the construction of new hospitals and the redevelopment/ renovation projects, the total number of hospital beds under the Hospital Authority will be increased to over 30,000 in the coming five years," said Mrs Fok.

Turning to social welfare, Mrs Fok said the $29.1 billion recurrent expenditure for 1999/2000 represented 14.1 per cent of the total Government recurrent expenditure and a real growth of 13.6 per cent over the figure for the current financial year.

The total expenditure includes $21 billion on social security, $2.5 billion on elderly services, $2 billion on rehabilitation services, $1.6 billion on family and child welfare services, and $1.4 billion on youth services.

As the CSSA expenditure is projected to grow to $15.5 billion next year, an increase of almost 18 per cent over 1998/1999, the Social Welfare Department will create over 200 new posts to deal with the increasing number of cases, provide additional assistance to the unemployed CSSA recipients, and strengthen the investigation of abuse cases, said Mrs Fok.

For the elderly, improvements will be made in the following areas : provide over 2,400 additional subsidised residential care places; expand dementia supplement in residential care homes to benefit an extra 160 demented elderly; conduct pilot schemes on setting up dementia care units in five care-and-attention homes and two day care centres; provide various community care services, including 21 home help teams, two day care centres, four multi-service centres, and four support teams.

The Government also proposes to provide an additional 1,700 day nursery places, 32 additional social workers to improve family casework services, and 24 additional social workers to step up child protection work.

Mrs Fok said the Government remained fully committed to promoting the participation and integration of people with disabilities into the community.

"In the coming year, we will spend over $2 billion in providing direct welfare services for the disabled, an increase of seven per cent over the current year.

"The increase will enable us to improve our existing services and to provide also an additional 530 day and residential places for adults with disabilities and 30 additional pre-school places," Mrs Fok added.

End/Saturday, February 27, 1999

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