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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 28):
Question:
Regarding the manpower of nursing staff in public hospitals, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) the respective year-end numbers of nursing staff of various ranks in public hospitals and the respective numbers of those who departed, in each of the past three years;
(b) if the Hospital Authority (HA) has assessed the seriousness of wastage of nursing staff in public hospitals and looked into the reasons for departure;
(c) if HA has reviewed the adequacy of the nurse-to-patient ratios in public hospitals, and how the ratios compare with those in developed countries in Europe and America; and
(d) the measures, apart from employing new nurses to fill the vacancies, HA has put in place to reduce the wastage of nursing staff?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The actual year-end numbers of nursing staff of various ranks in public hospitals under the Hospital Authority (HA) and the numbers of those who left the HA, in each of the past three years, are set out at the Annex.
(b) The wastage rate of the HA's nursing staff in 2005-06 was about 2.1%, whereas the overall wastage rate of the HA in the same year was 3.8%. As revealed by the departing nurses in their exit interviews with the HA, nearly half of them left their jobs because of family or personal reasons, such as needing to look after their families, taking a career break or starting their own business. Other reasons for departure include career change, health reasons, retirement or further study.
(c) Depending on the types of service (for example, acute care or ambulatory care), the extent of medical attention are distinctively different, resulting in different levels of demand in nursing manpower. Internationally, staffing arrangements vary under different health care systems due to different modes of service delivery, and hence at present there is no single set of universally-accepted international standards on nurse-to-patient ratio that can be used for benchmarking.
(d) The HA has adopted a number of measures to reduce the wastage of nursing staff.
Firstly, the HA will alleviate the workload of nurses. The HA has engaged supporting staff and undergraduate nursing students on temporary terms to assist nurses in clinical departments, and will employ additional ward stewards to relieve nursing staff of their clerical work. Moreover, the HA has introduced flexible continuous night shift, to reduce the frequency of night shifts for nurses. The HA will also offer better employment package to attract more part-time nurses to work in the HA.
On the other hand, the HA will offer permanent appointments to eligible nursing staff. As for professional development and training, the HA is now providing a two-year structured preceptorship scheme to freshly graduated nurses, as well as training subsidy for registered nurses and enrolled nurses to take conversion programmes. The HA will also provide opportunities for nursing staff to study advanced or professional training programmes.
Ends/Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Issued at HKT 15:19
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