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Following is a question by the Hon Tsang Yok-sing and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (May 28):
Question:
It has been reported that at present, public hospitals in the Hong Kong West, Kowloon West, New Territories East and New Territories West Clusters are using video conferencing systems to provide medical consultation service and nursing advice for the elderly in residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs). Regarding this scheme, will the Government inform this Council whether:
(a) it knows the current numbers of public hospitals, RCHEs and elderly centres taking part in the aforesaid scheme;
(b) the Government and the Hospital Authority have plans to
(i) encourage and assist more hospital clusters, public hospitals, RCHEs and elderly centres to take part in the scheme; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(ii) extend the scheme to elders living alone; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(iii) extend the above scheme to residential homes operated by the Social Welfare Department and non-governmental welfare organisations; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) At present, five hospitals in the four clusters of the Hospital Authority (HA) are using video conferencing systems to provide medical consultation service for the elderly of 18 residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs). HA started to provide medical consultation service through video conferencing on a limited basis in 1998, primarily because outreaching service for the elderly was still at its early stage of development with limited coverage at that time. Provision of medical consultation service through video conferencing is, to a certain extent, a convenient way to offer simple diagnosis and advice to the elderly and health care personnel in RCHEs. However, this diagnosis method mainly serves to provide a video communication channel to help the doctors to communicate with nurses in RCHEs and to comprehend patients' conditions; this does not involve other diagnoses and transmission of patients' pathological information.
(b)
(i) & (ii) The use of video conferencing systems for medical consultation is promoted in some overseas countries because their medical facilities are often far away from patients' homes and medical services are not readily accessible. Given the small size of Hong Kong and its convenient transportation network, the public can get easy access to medical facilities near their homes to receive necessary medical treatment.
HA has made active efforts to develop its community and ambulatory services in the past decade. Through regular visits arranged by the Community Geriatric Assessment Teams (CGAT) and Community Psychogeriatric Teams, the Visiting Medical Officers are able to closely observe the clinical conditions of the elderly patients in RCHEs and provide them with immediate treatment, prescription and medical referral, etc. In addition, a range of visiting services have been provided through community nurses, community psychiatric nurses and community allied health professionals so as to give appropriate and timely support to elderly patients and ensure that they get continued care and treatment in the community. We consider that such service arrangements better suit the needs of the elderly. As such, we have no plan to develop video conferencing systems to provide nursing advice and consultation service to the elderly. Besides, the provision of medical consultation service through video conferencing is subject to a number of constraints, such as the need to sort out issues in relation to equipment installation, routine maintenance, repair, etc. It is therefore not appropriate to extend the video conferencing systems to elders (including singleton elderly) at their own residents at this stage.
(iii) HA does not have any plan to extend the video conferencing services to the residential homes operated by the Social Welfare Department (SWD) and the non-governmental welfare organisations at the moment. At present, medical consultation services are provided to residents in these residential homes through various channels. For example, the CGAT, the Visiting Medical Officer/CGAT Collaborative Scheme and the Visiting Medical Practitioner Scheme of HA provide outreach medical consultation services to residents in RCHEs; and the Visiting Medical Practitioner Scheme provides such services to residents of subvented Residential Care Homes for Persons with Disabilities.
Ends/Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:40
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