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Following is a question by the Dr Hon Joseph Lee and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (June 15):
Question:
Regarding the supply and demand of nurses, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it knows, in respect of the situation over the past five years and projection for the coming three years:
(i) the respective numbers of enrolled nurses and registered nurses graduating from relevant nursing courses each year; and
(ii) the respective numbers of vacancies for enrolled nurses and registered nurses in each public hospital cluster, the Department of Health, private hospitals, private elderly homes and other types of non-governmental organisations each year, and the number of such vacancies not filled after completion of the relevant recruitment exercises; and
(b) of the public services affected by the shortage of nurses during the past five years and the details of the impact?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) (i) The respective numbers of registered nurses (RNs) and enrolled nurses (ENs) who graduated from the relevant nursing courses over the past five years, and the projected numbers for the coming three years, are set out in Table 1.
The substantial decrease in the number of nursing graduates in 2002-03 was due to the cessation of student intake to the nursing programmes run by the Hospital Authority (HA) since July 1999. The decision to cease student intake was made having regard to the trend of reduction in wastage rate of nurses and changes in the skill mix and the mode of delivery of healthcare services. The decision was also in line with the Government's policy of upgrading basic nursing education to degree level for enhancing the quality of healthcare services. This was reflected in the steady increase in the number of places in degree level nursing programmes over the past few years. In the academic year 2004-05, 450 first-year-first-degree places (FYFD) (in full-time-equivalent terms) and 138 first-year-sub-degree places (in full-time-equivalent terms) in nursing education are provided by the University Grants Committee (UGC)-funded institutions. The number of FYFD places in nursing by UGC-funded institutions will further increase to 518 in the 2005-06 to 2007-08 triennium. In addition, the Open University of Hong Kong will start two new four-year nursing degree programmes this September offering a total of 100 places.
(ii) The number of vacancies for RNs and ENs, and the number of such vacancies not filled after completion of the relevant recruitment exercises, at the HA over the past five years are shown in Table 2.
The Department of Health did not experience any difficulty in filling its nursing vacancies over the same time period. However, the Administration does not have exact information on the number of nursing vacancies in private hospitals and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), although some of them have indicated difficulties in recruiting ENs.
Looking ahead, the long term requirement for additional nurses, including the requirement of the public medical sector, the private medical sector and the welfare sector, is estimated to be about 600 a year. Since the estimated overall supply of new nursing graduates is expected to increase from 516 in 2005-06 to 567 in 2006-07 and around 600 in subsequent years as indicated in part (i) above, there may still be an undersupply of nursing graduates for a couple more years, but the situation should improve by 2007-08.
(b) Having regard to the reduction in the number of inpatient beds in and enhancement of community medical services by public hospitals, the HA has cut down the size of its expected intake of nursing graduates in recent years. In addition, the HA has implemented a number of measures to ensure that public medical services would not be adversely affected by the tight supply of nursing graduates. To alleviate the workload of frontline nursing staff, the HA has deployed more supporting staff to assist frontline nurses in carrying out simple patient care duties, which do not require professional nursing knowledge. Examples of such duties include bed baths, oral health care, giving out bedpans and urinals, and feeding patients. In addition, the HA will continue to retain undergraduate nursing students on temporary employment to provide workload relief for nursing staff, as and when necessary. Furthermore, the HA has recently formed a Nurse Working Group in its Head Office to involve frontline nurses in the development of more innovative ways for addressing the issue of nursing manpower shortage.
In the welfare sector, all residential care homes for the elderly are licensed under the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Ordinance and required to maintain a certain minimum ratio of care staff to residents. Performance and service quality of subvented elderly homes is also monitored by the Social Welfare Department. Operators are given flexibilities to deploy a mix of staff to maintain the required care level for elders. We are however aware that the shortage of nursing manpower may pose operational difficulties to operators and are looking into ways to deal with the situation.
Ends/Wednesday, June 15, 2005
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