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Following is a question by the Hon Li Kwok-ying and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (June 27):
Question:
Regarding the Emergency Medicine Wards (EMWs) set up by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Tuen Mun Hospital and Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital of the Hospital Authority, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) the current average occupancy rates of the EMWs at the hospitals concerned, and whether there are plans to increase the number of these beds; if so; the implementation timetable; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) whether the hospitals concerned have increased the number of healthcare staff for setting up these wards; if so, the respective number of additional staff for each of these hospitals; if not, the reasons for that;
(c) the current average waiting time for the patients at the Accident and Emergency Departments of the aforesaid hospitals, and how it compares with that prior to the setting up of the EMWs; and
(d) the training and guidelines provided by the hospitals concerned for the healthcare staff working in these wards?
Reply:
Madam President,
Emergency Medicine Wards (EMWs) are a new type of wards established by the Hospital Authority (HA). The services provided in this type of wards are inpatient services by nature, with the objective of providing health care to urgent patients confirmed to be in need of hospitalisation through an integrated and multi-disciplinary treatment approach. The EMWs are under the charge of specialists in emergency medicine, who employ a more pro-active "treatment and review" approach. In addition to conducting rapid examination and tests, the doctors in EMWs will, where necessary, administer emergency treatment and devise longer-term treatment plan for the patients. Generally speaking, a determination will be made within 24 hours as to whether the patients can be discharged or need to remain hospitalised. Patients confirmed to have a genuine need for continued hospitalisation will generally be transferred to the appropriate specialist wards. EMWs were first set up in Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) and Tuen Mun Hospital (TMH) in January 2007 while that in Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital (PYNEH) was set up in May 2007. The HA has plans to set up such wards in all of its acute hospitals in the coming one to two years.
(a) The current bed occupancy rates of the EMWs under the HA are shown in Table 1.
As EMWs are still in their initial stage of operation, it is necessary for the hospitals concerned to observe for a longer time before they can fully ascertain the actual demand for such service. Hence, the HA has no plan to increase the number of EMW beds for the time being.
(b) QEH, TMH and PYNEH have deployed the requisite number of health care staff for setting up the EMWs, details of which are shown in Table 2.
(c) The primary function of Accident & Emergency Departments (AEDs) is to provide emergency treatment to patients who fall ill or suffer from injuries. Health care staff at AEDs will triage and prioritise the patients for treatment according to their clinical conditions or seriousness of their injuries. In the case of EMWs, they are inpatient services by nature, and their service targets are patients in acute condition who are in need of inpatient care as determined by the health care staff at the AEDs. As AEDs and EMWs are different in their functions and the operation of EMWs does not have a bearing on the triage procedures at AEDs, there is no direct correlation between the setting up of EMWs and the waiting time at AEDs.
The average waiting time for the patients at AEDs of QEH and TMH between February and May in 2006 as compared to that during the corresponding period in 2007 is set out in Table 3.
As the EMW of PYNEH did not come into operation until May 10, 2007, no sufficient data are available for comparison.
(d) The hospitals concerned have organised a series of training programmes for their health care staff working in EMWs to enable these frontline staff to have an understanding of the operation of the EMWs and the patient care approach at the wards. The training programmes include clinical management system, transfer of patients as well as catering arrangement and management system. In addition, the hospitals concerned have also put in place relevant clinical guidelines in order to provide their health care staff with clear instructions on the operation of EMWs and the patient care approach in the wards.
Ends/Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:56
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