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Following is a question by the Hon Lau Kong-wah and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (March 7):
Question:
Regarding the obstetrics and gynaecology (O&G) services in public hospitals in Tseung Kwan O, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) the respective numbers, in each of the past three years, of babies born in Hong Kong whose parents' residential addresses were in Tseung Kwan O or other parts of Sai Kung;
(b) which of the public hospitals in other districts are required to undertake extra work in providing O&G services for women residing in Tseung Kwan O, and the workload involved;
(c) how the Hospital Authority assesses the need for additional O&G services in Tseung Kwan O, and the assessment criteria adopted; and
(d) the costs of providing additional O&G services in Tseung Kwan O?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) According to the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD), the numbers of local new-born babies residing in Tseung Kwan O (TKO) or Sai Kung between 2003 and 2005 are shown in the Talbe.
(b) The services of the Hospital Authority (HA) are provided on a cluster basis. At present, hospitals under the Kowloon East Hospital Cluster (KE Cluster), namely United Christian Hospital (UCH), Tseung Kwan O Hospital (TKOH) and Haven of Hope Hospital (HHH), provide services for residents in East Kowloon, TKO and Sai Kung. The scope of TKOH's services includes out-patient and in-patient services in gynaecology and out-patient antenatal care for pregnant women. Inpatient obstetric services and neonatal intensive care services of the KE Cluster are converged in UCH, which is the largest hospital in the Cluster. The above organisation of services is in line with the practice of other hospital clusters under the HA.
According to HA's records, amongst the local new-born babies residing in TKO or Sai Kung who were delivered in public hospitals, about half of them (i.e. between 850 and 900 per year) were delivered by UCH in the KE Cluster. The workload for the delivery of the remaining half was shared mainly by the Kowloon Central and Kowloon West Hospital Clusters. In fact, the Obstetric Department of UCH has sufficient capacity to handle all delivery cases of TKO and Sai Kung residents who choose to utilise the services of public hospitals. However, a fairly sizable number of residents have opted to make use of public hospitals in other clusters in recent years. The KE Cluster will continue to honour HA's pledge that all local residents who make a booking for obstetric services with public hospitals would be arranged to receive the necessary antenatal care and in-patient services within their own hospital cluster.
As for gynaecological services, on the basis of statistics on the number of bed-days occupied, about 28% of women residing within the catchment area of the KE Cluster and making use of HA's gynaecological services are utilising such services from public hospitals outside the KE Cluster. This figure is similar to the overall ratio of cross-cluster utilisation of gynaecological services by HA's patients.
(c) Pursuant to the benchmark laid down by HA's internal expert committee, HA should only consider the establishment of obstetric services at hospitals with at least 3,000 childbirths per year, so as to ensure that their healthcare personnel are sufficiently experienced to handle complications that may emerge in the labour process (such as dystocia). HA has been closely monitoring the number of childbirths in TKO in its consideration of the need to provide obstetric services in TKOH. However, considering that the number of new-born babies residing in TKO and Sai Kung and delivered in public hospitals has yet to reach the aforementioned benchmark, the HA does not have any plan at the present moment to establish obstetric services in TKOH.
To meet the service needs of the residents in its catchment area, the KE Cluster has already planned to open 20 more obstetric beds in UCH in the near future. The KE Cluster will closely monitor the situation of TKO and will make appropriate adjustments to its services, if necessary.
(d) Since the HA does not have any plan to establish obstetric services in TKOH, it has not made any assessment on the resources that may be required.
Ends/Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:19
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