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Following is a question by the Hon Lau Kong-wah and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (November 21):
Question:
Regarding physiotherapy service provided by public hospitals, will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
(a) whether there was a shortfall in the physiotherapy service provided by public hospitals in the past three years;
(b) in respect of the past three years, the percentage of elderly persons among those receiving physiotherapy treatment in public hospitals, the number of elderly persons in need of such service each year, and their average waiting time;
(c) the average charges for physiotherapy service in the private sector at present, and the estimated percentage of public hospital patients turning to the private sector for physiotherapy service as a result of excessively long waiting time; and
(d) whether the Hospital Authority will enhance the physiotherapy service in public hospitals to alleviate the financial burden on patients (particularly the elderly) who have to use the service in the private sector due to excessively long waiting time at public hospitals?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The physiotherapy service of the Hospital Authority (HA) is mainly provided to patients through its in-patient service and specialist out-patient service. The HA is also providing physiotherapy service in the community to a limited extent through its day hospitals and community services. In the past three years, the attendances of HA's physiotherapy service were at similar level, while there was a slight increase in the attendance of physiotherapy out-patient service. Data on the utilisation of HA's physiotherapy service are set out in Annex I.
For in-patients, services are provided by physiotherapists in hospitals depending on patients' clinical conditions and no prior appointment is required. As for specialist out-patient service, the median waiting time for first appointment for physiotherapy service in the past three years remained unchanged at one week. The figure shows that the existing physiotherapy out-patient service should be adequate to meet patients' demand.
(b) The numbers and percentages of elderly persons receiving HA's physiotherapy out-patient service in the past three years are set out in Annex II. The median waiting time of patients (including elderly persons) for their first appointment for out-patient service is about one week.
(c) & (d) The HA does not have any information on the average charges for physiotherapy service in the private sector. Currently, the median waiting time for first appointment for HA's specialist out-patient physiotherapy service is about one week. The existing service should be adequate to meet patients' demand. The HA has no plan to provide additional physiotherapy out-patient service. This notwithstanding, the pilot scheme of health care vouchers for the elderly which the Government plans to launch in 2008/09 could partly subsidise the elderly aged 70 or above to use physiotherapy service in the private sector. It is expected that the scheme could provide elderly persons with additional choices of health care service apart from the public health care services.
Ends/Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Issued at HKT 14:31
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