****************************
Following is a question by the Hon James Tien and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (February 7):
Question:
I have learnt that the authorities have not expedited the expansion projects of Tseung Kwan O Hospital (TKOH) and Haven of Hope Hospital (HHH). Recently, they have started to reduce the medical facilities such as hospital beds in TKOH. In this regard, Sai Kung District Council and local residents have repeatedly raised their objection. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) the timetables for implementing the expansion projects of TKOH and HHH, as well as the details of the additional medical facilities proposed in the projects;
(b) the details of the medical facilities reduced or to be reduced in TKOH, and the timetable for such reduction;
(c) the utilisation rates of the facilities concerned in TKOH before and after the reduction of the facilities, as well as the respective bed-to-population ratios for TKOH before and after the reduction of hospital beds, and how the figures compare to those for the hospitals in other districts; and
(d) the reasons for reducing the above facilities in TKOH, and whether the authorities will consider ceasing the reduction?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The Hospital Authority (HA) is in the process of drawing up the expansion plans for Tseung Kwan O Hospital (TKOH) and Haven of Hope Hospital (HHH). The time schedule of the works and the facilities to be expanded are yet to be finalised at this stage.
(b) The services of HA are provided on a cluster basis. At present, the Kowloon East Hospital Cluster (KE Cluster), which consists of United Christian Hospital (UCH), TKOH and HHH, provides services to residents in East Kowloon, Tseung Kwan O (TKO) and Sai Kung districts. Like other clusters, the KE Cluster has been closely monitoring the service utilisation to ensure that adequate services are made available to meet the needs of the residents. It will also arrange for re-deployment of resources among the hospitals under the Cluster for enhanced efficiency and better utilisation of resources, having regard to changes in demand and service development. To this end, the KE Cluster plans to re-structure the services of TKOH and converge convalescent service under HHH early this year. According to the re-organisation plan, TKOH will close down 38 convalescent beds, while HHH in the same district will re-deploy a similar number of beds internally to support TKOH's convalescent service. The KE Cluster will adopt complementary measures to tie in with the re-structuring plan, which include enhancement of non-emergency ambulance service for convalescent patients and rationalisation of the delivery process of various hospital services.
(c) The occupancy rate of the 38 convalescent beds of TKOH before their closing was about 85%. The current bed-to-population ratios of various clusters under HA are set out in the Annex. We would like to point out that the bed-to-population ratio varies from cluster to cluster. It is not appropriate to compare the services of different clusters solely on the basis of such data, as the age distribution and health profile of residents in each district are different and it is fairly common that some patients would choose to seek treatment from other clusters. In addition, some specialists services are centralised in a few hospitals. The number of beds at these hospitals as well as the number of patients served by them are hence higher.
(d) As mentioned above, the aforesaid plan to re-deploy TKOH's convalescent beds is aimed at re-structuring services of KE cluster and achieving better utilisation of resources. The implementation of the plan will not affect the relevant medical services in TKO district, nor will it affect the future provision of services and the expansion plans for TKOH and HHH.
Ends/Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:06
NNNN
