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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Chief Executive of the Hospital Authority, Mr Shane Solomon, today (November 19) announced the implementation of a new internal resource allocation system in public hospitals in the next financial year (2009-10).
Mr Solomon explained that the Hospital Authority needed to modernise its internal budget allocation system to enhance transparency and ensure fairness. ¡§The new funding model ties resources to workload, reward quality and provide incentive for efficiency.¡¨
¡§The new system - Pay for Performance will be transparent and allocate resources fairly on the basis of the number and complexity of patients treated. At the same time, it will provide incentive for efficiency and performance by encouraging shorter length of stay and ambulatory activities which reflect efficiency.¡¨
¡§Benchmarking will also be built in to allow hospitals and departments to learn from each other, analyse why there are differences in performance and drive better performance.¡¨
Under the Pay for Performance system, Casemix funding is proposed to be adopted in 2009-10 but will apply only to acute inpatient services, accounting for about 53% of the authority¡¦s total expenditure.
Mr Solomon said the new mechanism also facilitated the introduction of Public Private Partnership programmes, ¡§With a ¡¥price¡¦ for each type of Hospital Authority inpatient, measured by international Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs), we can decide whether it is better to buy some services from the private sector, and what price it should pay to ease our workload or a surge in demand.¡¨
¡§Specific funding will be allocated to specific programmes to improve service quality, such as training more nurses, hospital accreditation, 2D barcoding and more modern drugs for the Hospital Authority Drug Formulary.¡¨
The Pay for Performance funding model has three key elements: funding for growth in targeted activities; funding for quality improvement programmes; and funding for technology advancement, service improvement, and workforce supply.
¡§The growth in targeted activities will cover acute inpatient, non-acute inpatient and ambulatory/community care. The extra activity will go to high priority areas based on Hospital Authority Head Office¡¦s service planning projections, and on the advice of the Clinical Co-ordinating Committees. Examples include opening new services in areas with undersupply, such as New Territories West and Kowloon East Clusters, growth in demand from life threatening conditions such as cancer, and areas where we have major service backlogs such as Special Outpatient Patient Clinic first attendances and cataract surgery,¡¨ Mr Solomon said.
To ensure smooth implementation, a series of internal and external communication programmes is being conducted for the stakeholders.
Internally, Mr Solomon reassured staff members that the new Pay for Performance system would be introduced step by step to avoid major disruptions and allow more study and more refinement. He also assured patients that quality of healthcare and patient service would not be sacrificed or compromised for cost-saving, and hospitals would be awarded for wise use of resources.
¡§It will change the incentives in the authority, and modernise the authority¡¦s system for allocating resources. I hope front-line colleagues will make the best of it for our patients,¡¨ Mr Solomon said.
Ends/Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Issued at HKT 18:54
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