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The Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, today (August 20) visited two residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) in Tseung Kwan O to see for himself the multi-faceted services of the homes and to hear the views of residents and staff on the preventive and control measures taken during the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak.
Noting that frail elders in RCHEs were at risk during the epidemic as many of them were frequent users of hospital services, Dr Yeoh said the Social Welfare Department (SWD), Department of Health (DH) and Hospital Authority (HA) had strengthened their support to the homes and kept close liaison with the home operators on the implementation of preventive and control measures against SARS.
During the SARS outbreak, 72 SARS cases were reported among residents of 51 RCHEs.
Dr Yeoh noted that the Government was alerted to the recent outbreak in British Columbia involving some 140 residents and staff in a long stay facility.
"I have spoken to the Director of Health to see what we need to enhance our surveillance.
"We shall be coming up with very specific proposals in the next one or two days," he added.
Back in March, guidelines on SARS were issued to all homes and health education on SARS was enhanced. A special briefing session on infection control measures and stress management was conducted for the home operators in mid-April, and a special data system was set up to handle collection, updating, analysis and reporting work so as to facilitate information sharing among SWD, DH and HA.
SWD also completed a round of concern visits to some 740 RCHEs in April and May to ascertain compliance in infection control measures. DH's visiting health teams had joined some of these visits to reinforce support. Educational pamphlets and gift packs of protective materials were distributed.
To reduce hospital admission by RCHE residents, Dr Yeoh was pleased to note that HA had strengthened its Community Geriatric Assessment Teams through collaboration with Visiting Medical Officers in the private sector to pay regular visits to homes.
Dr Yeoh said homes operated by non-governmental organisations had also helped in the SARS outbreak by receiving temporarily from the public hospitals a number of infirm elderly patients who were medically stable.
In particular, he expressed gratitude to the Haven of Hope Nursing Home and the Haven of Hope Woo Ping Care and Attention Home which he visited today for receiving 25 and six such patients during the epidemic.
The Haven of Hope Nursing Home is a subvented nursing home providing residential nursing care service for the frail and weak elders while the Haven of Hope Woo Ping Care and Attention Home is the largest self-financing purpose-built old age home in Hong Kong.
"Although the epidemic had been brought under control, the government would continue to remain vigilant. DH, HA and SWD will continue to work closely together aiming in particular at elders at risk in both the residential and community settings," Dr Yeoh said.
He said HA would continue to work closely with the RCHEs through its Community Geriatric Assessment Service to the homes to reduce hospital admissions.
HA, DH and SWD would also strengthen their liaison with the home operators on hospitalised cases with a view to providing the elders concerned with holistic and appropriate care.
Besides, DH and SWD would continue with their general support to the residents and operators of RCHEs on preventive and control measures against infectious diseases. The two departments would also continue with their supportive measures for vulnerable elders in the community, Dr Yeoh added.
Meanwhile, Dr Yeoh said the government would continue to provide residential care services offering continuum of care suited to the varying needs of elders to enable them to age in place.
"We are developing a fee assistance scheme to allow elders to have more choices and flexibility in using residential care services. We are at an early stage of our deliberation and will involve stakeholders in formulating proposals.
"We also aim to put in place before the end of this year a new system of a centralised registration and allocation system for both residential and community care services provided under the social welfare system. Appropriate services will be assigned in accordance with the care needs as assessed by the standardised care need assessment tool," he said.
End/Wednesday, August 20, 2003
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