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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The ¡§Tin Shui Wai Primary Care Partnership Project¡¨ launched by the Hospital Authority (HA) in June this year is entering into the second phase by sending invitation letters to a total of 729 eligible chronic patients with stable conditions to join the project.
Under the programme, HA purchases primary care services from the private doctors in the district who are willing to participate in the project to provide medical consultation to patients who have been regularly attending the public general outpatient clinics for chronic illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes and osteoarthritis.
The HA Director (Cluster Services), Dr Cheung Wai-lun, today (August 15) said, ¡§Since the commencement of the Tin Shui Wai Primary Care Partnership Project in June, there are already six private doctors in the district joining the programme, which has exceeded our target for the first phase. In the first phase, among the 900 eligible patients being invited to join, more than 300 were successfully enrolled. The majority of the participated patients opined that the project is attractive in terms of convenience, and the public briefings and help desk are also considered useful. Since the commencement of the pilot project, the HA Electronic Patient Record Sharing Pilot System is running smoothly.¡¨
Patients invited in the first phrase are mainly residing in eight housing estates in the northern part of Tin Shui Wai, namely Tin Heng Estate, Tin Chak Estate, Grandeur Terrace, Tin Yat Estate, Tin Fu Court, Tin Yuet Estate, Tin Yan Estate and Vianni Cove. The invitation is now extended to five more estates in the southern part of the district, they are Tin Wah Estate, Tin Chung Court, Lynwood Court, Maywood Court and Kenswood Court.
The project will last for 36 months. It is target to recruit around 1,000 patients with chronic illnesses; for those who choose not to take part in this project will continue to be taken care of by the public general outpatient clinic.
Dr Cheung said, ¡§When the participating patient visits a private doctor who has joined the project, the patient should pay the private doctor the same fee as charged by the general outpatient clinic (i.e., $45 per attendance inclusive of drugs). Participating doctor will receive a total of $150 for each consultation which includes patient fee and the subsidies from the project. The drugs for chronic illnesses and the necessary clinical examinations will be provided by HA. HA will arrange for the drugs for chronic illnesses to be delivered to the clinics of participating doctors in advance for direct prescription. There is no need for participating patients to collect their drugs at the public general outpatient clinic.¡¨
¡§Participating doctors have to input the key clinical information of the patients into the HA patient record database through the Electronic Patient Record Sharing Pilot System provided by HA. The purposes are to allow HA to keep track of the clinical outcomes and conduct monitoring, as well as facilitating the provision of continual care to participating patients when they seek consultations at public hospitals in future,¡¨ Dr Cheung remarked.
At present, the public general outpatient services in Tin Shui Wai are mainly provided by the Tin Shui Wai Health Centre. To cater for the increasing population and service demand in the district, HA and the Government have been exploring ways to enhance the existing public primary care services in Tin Shui Wai, in particular in the northern part of the district. Taking the opportunity of conducting a pilot project in the northern part of Tin Shui Wai district to purchase primary care services from the private sector for specified patient groups, the feasibility of public-private partnership in providing primary care services is also explored.
¡§HA has set up a help desk and a telephone hotline 2616 4856 at Tin Shui Wai Health Centre to answer enquiries from members of the public, patients and private doctors on details of the project and also provide support to those who have participated in the project. A review will be conducted in a year to assess the effectiveness of the project,¡¨ Dr Cheung added.
Ends/Friday, August 15, 2008
Issued at HKT 19:26
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