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The Government proposes to set up a trust fund for SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) with a one-off injection of $130 million to provide, on compassionate grounds, special ex-gratia assistance to SARS affected families, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, said today (October 17).
Dr Yeoh said: "The SARS outbreak earlier this year was unique and unprecedented. This was a major epidemic caused by a new virus and of proportions not seen in modern Hong Kong history.
"It was a tragic incident and the Government fully symphathises with the plight of the patients and their family members. The Hospital Authority (HA) and the Social Welfare Department (SWD) have been rendering support and assistance to the patients and families. The trust fund is part of our continuous effort to provide care and support."
The special ex-gratia assistance would be provided on compassionate grounds to eligible applicants with need: -
(a) family members of SARS deceased patients; and
(b) patients recovered from SARS who suffer from longer term effects, attributable to SARS, which may result in some degree of physical or psychological dysfunction, subject to medical proof and demonstrated financial need.
The SARS patients concerned should be Hong Kong residents infected with SARS during the outbreak in Hong Kong from March to June this year.
For families of the deceased patients, the amount of special ex-gratia relief payments would be determined having regard to the dependent members involved.
The special ex-gratia financial assistance for patients recovered from SARS would have to be considered on a case-by-case basis having regard to the attending doctors' assessment and the medical social workers' advice. As it would take HA some more time to observe the patients recovered from SARS to identify the likely type(s) of longer term effects, a certain sum had been earmarked for this group to provide a buffer which may be invoked to cater for contingency as more medical knowledge is gained.
The application and processing procedure would be made simple as far as possible. The details would be announced after funding support approval has been obtained from the Finance Committee (FC) of the Legislative Council. The Administration aimed to seek FC's approval in November 2003.
"SWD will set up a core team to support the operations of the trust fund and to oversee the follow-up support services for the SARS affected families," Dr Yeoh said.
Apart from financial support, Dr Yeoh said SWD and HA, together with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), would continue to work closely to provide support services to the family members of the deceased SARS patients and the recovered SARS patients to address their needs.
For example, he said, all recovered SARS patients were being invited by HA to check for their physical and psychological well-being and then helped through appropriate rehabilitation programmes. The SWD would take this opportunity to assess the psychosocial wellness of the patients to identify any further needs for referral to appropriate services such as counselling.
"We will brief the relevant Legislative Council panels on details of the package of support services including the trust fund for SARS on Monday (October 20), so that they can have a more in-depth understanding of our continuous efforts on this front."
Since the start of the SARS outbreak in March this year, SWD and HA with the support of other departments and NGOs, had provided various support services to SARS affected families. These included: medical treatment and rehabilitation programs, the provision of daily necessities for those in home confinement, child care arrangements, emergency financial assistance, transitional residential placement as well as counselling and psychological treatment.
SWD and HA had contacted SARS patients and their families. SWD, for example, had contacted all the families of the 299 deceased SARS patients to identify and address their needs for assistance. The department was providing support to 449 recovered SARS patients, with 286 through family service centres / integrated family service centres and 163 by medical social workers.
The Health, Welfare and Food Bureau, tasked to implement the recommendations of the Report of the SARS Expert Committee, proposed the above course of action. The Report had recommended, among others, to assess the medical and psychosocial needs of the SARS affected families, as well as to set up a contingency fund with Government contributions for public relief.
End/Friday, October 17, 2003
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