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Following is a question by the Hon Andrew Cheng and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (October 22):
Question:
In view of the recent incidents on the Mainland involving melamine-tainted milk products, the Hospital Authority set up 18 designated clinics (DCs) on the 23rd of last month to provide free initial assessment service for children at or under the age of 12, and patients who require further assessment and treatment will be referred to the nine special assessment centres (SACs). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) the respective average weekly numbers of children to whom the above DCs and SACs have provided service since the launch of the above service, and the number of those who have so far been diagnosed to have renal stones and are in need of treatment;
(b) the waiting time of new cases for the above assessment service, and whether the authorities will consider increasing the service quota on Saturdays and Sundays; and
(c) the reasons why, instead of using the telephone booking service, many parents queued in person at the DCs to book the assessment service for their children, and whether additional resources will be provided to improve the relevant telephone booking service?
Reply:
President,
(a) Since September 23, the Hospital Authority (HA) has set up designated clinics (DCs) and special assessment centres (SACs) to provide free assessment to eligible children at or under the age of 12, particularly those who have consumed the milk products in question and have relevant symptoms. As at October 19, the 18 DCs and nine SACs provided assessment and follow-up treatment services to 41,748 and 12,394 children respectively. The numbers of consultations provided in each week are set out in Annex.
As at October 19, the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) has received ten reports of renal stone cases associated with consumption of Melamine tainted milk products. Eight cases were reported by HA and two by private hospitals. Of these ten cases, six of them were discharged from hospitals after treatment, two of them did not require hospitalisation and were being followed up at relevant out-patient clinic of HA, while the remaining two were admitted to the Princess Margaret Hospital. All of them are in satisfactory condition.
(b) The 18 DCs endeavour to provide screening service for eligible children as soon as possible. At present, consultation can be arranged for most children on the same day. Some DCs would arrange appointment for consultation for children within several days as necessary. As for the SACs, the median waiting time for consultation is 23 days as at October 19.
HA has been closely monitoring the utilisation of the DCs and SACs. To cope with the service demand, HA has made flexible arrangements to adjust the service hours of the DCs, such as extending service to cover Sundays and public holidays during the "Golden Week" holiday. Some SACs have also extended their service hours without affecting the normal services offered by HA. HA will continue to monitor closely the operation of the DCs and SACs. Their service hours and arrangements will be adjusted appropriately as necessary.
(c) For the purpose of immediate examination and assessment during consultation, parents are required to queue in person at the DCs as they need to be advised by healthcare professionals on how to take urine samples from their children. Also, parents are required to provide record on their children's consumption of melamine tainted milk products, and fill in a questionnaire about whether their children have various symptoms.
As mentioned above, the 18 DCs are able to provide consultation to most of the children on the same day, or to arrange an appointment for consultation at a suitable time. HA will continue to closely monitor the situation and review the service arrangements.
Ends/Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:14
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