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Following is a question by the Dr Hon Joseph Lee and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (March 5):
Question:
In connection with the prevention and control of communicable diseases spreading in residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs), will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of RCHE staff who were provided, in the past three years, with training and guidance on the prevention and control of communicable diseases spreading in RCHEs by the Visiting Health Teams of the Elderly Health Service under the Department of Health (DH), with a breakdown by the ranks of these staff;
(b) whether it has carried out any study to see if the number of cases of elderly RCHE residents contracting communicable diseases has dropped after the staff of the RCHEs concerned have received the aforesaid training and guidance; if it has, of the results; and
(c) given that Infection Control Nurses (ICNs) are currently appointed in public hospitals, whether DH will appoint ICNs in each district to coordinate and monitor the work of the RCHEs within the district in the prevention and control of communicable diseases spreading in RCHEs; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The Visiting Health Teams of the Department of Health's (DH) Elderly Health Service visit residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) and assess their infection control measures on a regular basis. RCHEs' staff, including supervisors, nurses, health workers, care workers and ancillary workers, are provided with in-service training and guidance on infection control as well as knowledge of infectious diseases and skills in infection control. The Visiting Health Teams will also arrange relevant training for the staff of individual RCHEs upon referral by the Licensing Office of Residential Care Homes for the Elderly (the Licensing Office) under the Social Welfare Department (SWD). In addition, the Elderly Health Service and the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) organise refresher courses for Infection Control Officers (who are usually nurses or health workers) of RCHEs every year to enhance their skills and knowledge of infection control. Over the past three years, there were over 80 000 attendances at these training courses. Details are shown in Table.
(b) Before commencement of business, RCHEs must comply with the requirements on health, sanitation and infection control facilities as stipulated in the Code of Practice for Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons). The DH will constantly arrange training on infection control for RCHE staff. It is therefore not possible for the DH to draw a comparison on the number of cases of infectious diseases before and after the RCHE staff have received the relevant training. In fact, apart from staff training, the number of cases of infectious diseases occurring in RCHEs may also be affected by other factors such as the infectivity of pathogens.
(c) The Government attaches great importance to the measures undertaken by RCHEs in the control of infectious diseases. Since November 2003, the SWD has required the operator or manager of each RCHE to appoint a nurse or health worker to be its Infection Control Officer. For self-care hostels without nurses or health workers, the hostel manager should be the Infection Control Officer.
The duties of Infection Control Officers include assessing the risk of outbreak of infectious disease in RCHEs, devising strategies to prevent outbreaks, overseeing the implementation of infection control guidelines by staff and arranging training on infection control for staff. They are also required to watch out for signs and symptoms of infectious diseases in residents and staff as well as reporting cases or suspected cases of infectious diseases to the Licensing Office of the SWD and the CHP of the DH. In addition, Infection Control Officers are required to offer assistance in tracking the source of infectious disease and collaborate with the CHP to contain its spread.
Apart from the work of the Infection Control Officers, RCHE staff who have adequate knowledge on infection control are of much importance to ensuring the preparedness of RCHEs for the prevention and control of infectious diseases. In addition to the training mentioned in part (a) above, the CHP also issues guidelines for RCHEs on infection control. The latest guidelines were issued to all RCHEs in 2007 to enable their staff to have a clear understanding of the issues and procedures in infection control.
Ends/Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Issued at HKT 17:06
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