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Following is a question by the Dr Hon Kwok Ka-ki and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (December 20):
Question:
It is learnt that the numbers of local pregnant women and women from the Mainland giving birth in Hong Kong are both increasing in recent months. This puts pressure on the obstetrics and gynaecology (O&G) services of the public and private hospitals in Hong Kong. Some members of the public have relayed to me that many local pregnant women are hence unable to receive comprehensive antenatal care. For example, the number of antenatal check-ups arranged for each pregnant woman keeps decreasing. Some of them are even not provided with certain basic antenatal check-up services such as ultrasound examination, etc. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) in each of the past five years, the average number of bed days of women giving birth in the public hospitals in Hong Kong, the average number of antenatal check-ups arranged for each pregnant woman and the time interval between each check-up, as well as the services usually offered in such check-ups;
(b) in each of the past five years, the resources (including the number of different types of health care personnel) and funding that the Hospital Authority provided to each of the O&G departments in public hospitals, with a detailed breakdown of the funding by expenditure items, including the salaries of health care personnel and other staff, as well as the expenses on drugs and medical facilities; and
(c) the maximum number of delivery cases that each of the public and private hospitals in Hong Kong can handle each year at present, as well as the estimated maximum number of delivery cases that each of these hospitals can handle in each of the next three years?
Reply :
Madam President,
(a) In the past five years, the average length of stay of local women who gave birth in public hospitals was four days. In the majority of cases, antenatal check-ups are provided by the Maternal and Child Health Centres of the Department of Health. Cases assessed to pose higher risks to the expectant mothers or their babies are referred to the Hospital Authority (HA) for follow-up. In the past five years, for the majority of the cases referred to the HA for follow-up, the expectant mothers were asked to attend between four to seven antenatal check-ups, depending on their clinical conditions. The services usually offered in these check-ups include checking of medical history; physical examination; laboratory testing on blood group, haemoglobin level, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Rubella antibodies, Hepatitis B antigen and venereal diseases; and, where necessary, ultrasound examination.
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(b) The respective numbers of doctors and nurses in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O&G) Departments for each of the past five years are given in the Table 1.
Breakdowns of the cost of O&G services in various hospital clusters of the HA for each of the past five years are set out in the Table 2.
(c) The HA estimates that the O&G Departments in public hospitals can handle around 39 000 delivery cases per year with their existing resources. The HA is considering a number of measures to relieve the pressure faced by these Departments and is not able to make a projection on their future capacity at this time. As regards private hospitals, we understand that their existing capacity is around 18 000 delivery cases per year.
Ends/Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Issued at HKT 13:04
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