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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 (November 8):
Question:
It has been reported that the Hospital Authority (HA), in restructuring the psychiatric services in its Clusters, has deployed from other Clusters 180 psychiatric beds for acute cases to the Kowloon Central Cluster. The occupancy rate of psychiatric beds of the hospital concerned in that Cluster, however, immediately reached 100% and temporary beds have to be added. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
(a) whether any additional resources have been deployed to the hospital concerned to tie in with the arrangements to provide additional beds and admission of acute cases; if so, the number of nursing staff and amount of funding involved; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) the details of the plan to provide comprehensive and seamless psychiatric services to the residents of the Kowloon Central Cluster (including the deployment of staff and resources involved) and the expected effectiveness of such services, given that HA has indicated that the increase in the number of psychiatric beds in the Cluster was to facilitate the provision of such services;
(c) the number of nursing staff, beds and in-patients in the existing psychiatric observation units and psychiatric wards of all the Clusters in Hong Kong; whether any particular hospital has experienced an excessive intake of patients; if so, the details and how the situation is dealt with; and
(d) how HA evaluates whether the planned services would meet the demands of the residents of the Clusters concerned when planning for the psychiatric services of the Clusters, whether any consultation has been conducted on the planning of the services, and how it ensures that adequate nursing staff and resources would be deployed to deliver the services concerned?
Reply:
Madam President,
The Hospital Authority (HA) reorganised the psychiatric services in its hospital clusters in mid 2006, which involved the transfer of some psychiatric hospital beds in Hong Kong East and Kowloon West (involving 180 beds in total) to Kowloon Hospital in Kowloon Central Hospital Cluster. The main purpose of the reorganisation was to facilitate the opening of the Kowloon Psychiatric Observation Unit in Kowloon Hospital. This Psychiatric Observation Unit now provides service to psychiatric patients in central and eastern Kowloon, who are to be admitted to a mental hospital for detention, custody or treatment under the Mental Health Ordinance. During the initial period after operation commenced, the Kowloon Psychiatric Observation Unit experienced some overcrowding problems. However, the HA has already taken contingency measures in October and started diverting some psychiatric patients to the Kwai Chung Psychiatric Observation Unit and the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Psychiatric Observation Unit. The HA will continue to closely monitor the situation at the Kowloon Psychiatric Observation Unit and take further contingency measures, if necessary. Our response to the specific questions raised by Dr Hon Joseph Lee is set out below.
(a & b) A total of 203 health care and other staff have been deployed to the Kowloon Psychiatric Observation Unit. In 2006-07, the amount of resources allocated to the Unit in dollar terms (including staff cost and other operational expenditure) is around $74 million.
Prior to the reorganisation of HA's psychiatric services, there were no medical facilities in Kowloon to serve patients who were required to be admitted to a mental hospital under the Mental Health Ordinance. The HA had to divert such patients from Kowloon to the Kwai Chung Psychiatric Observation Unit or the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Psychiatric Observation Unit. Through the setting up of the Kowloon Psychiatric Observation Unit, the HA seeks to improve the geographical coverage of psychiatric services offered by public hospitals, and thereby reducing the need for patients to be admitted to hospitals in other districts.
(c) The current numbers of psychiatric medical and nursing staff, psychiatric beds, and psychiatric inpatients in various hospital clusters of the HA are set out in the Table 1 & 2.
At present, excessive admissions are not common occurrences in the psychiatric wards of public hospitals. If a certain ward is found to be overcrowded, the HA will take appropriate diversion measures to alleviate the situation.
(d) In planning for the psychiatric services in its hospital clusters, the HA would mainly consider the demographic changes as well as the availability of community support facilities and services within their catchment areas, in order to provide the public with appropriate services. When making adjustments in provision of service, the HA would co-ordinate with all hospital clusters concerned in the deployment of manpower and other resources to ensure the smooth operation of various psychiatric services. All hospital clusters maintain close liaison with District Councils within their catchment areas. For example, the hospitals clusters would consult the views of the District Councils on their service plan each year, provide Members with updates on the services provided by the clusters and answer Members' questions.
Ends/Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Issued at HKT 13:05
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