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Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Kwok-che and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (December 10):
Question:
Since February 1, 2007, the Hospital Authority (HA) has implemented new arrangements for obstetric services for non-local pregnant women, which include setting a booking system and raising the Obstetric Package Charge from the previous level of $20,000 to $39,000 for those with a booking and to $48,000 for those without one. On August 5 this year, HA announced that the bookings for delivery in public hospitals would be closed for non-local pregnant women if their expected delivery dates fell between September and December. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council if it knows the following:
(a) the number of non-local pregnant women who made bookings for obstetric services in public hospitals (and the number of them married to Hong Kong residents), the extra revenue generated from the increased charge, the number of additional obstetrics beds provided and the number of additional healthcare staff employed by public hospitals, since February 1, 2007;
(b) as the authorities indicated in February this year that HA would conduct in the middle of this year a comprehensive review on the use of public hospitals' obstetric services by non-local pregnant women, the specific details of the review and whether participation of community organisations had been invited; and
(c) the average number of obstetrics beds in public hospitals and their average utilisation rate between September and November this year, the number of non-local pregnant women who gave births in public hospitals during the same period without a booking for obstetric services and, among them, the number of those who were married to Hong Kong residents, and how these figures compare to those for the same period in 2007?
Reply:
President,
To tackle the problem of rapid increase in the demand for obstetric services in Hong Kong by non-local pregnant women (including Mainland pregnant women) in recent years, the Hospital Authority (HA) has implemented since February 1, 2007 new arrangements for obstetric service for non-eligible persons (NEPs)(Note 1). The new arrangements include the setting up of a booking system in public hospitals for the use of such service, and the revision of the service package charge from the original $20,000 to $39,000 for booked cases and to $48,000 for those cases that seek hospital admission without prior booking. Other measures including the setting up of booking system in private hospitals and the implementation of complementary immigration measures by the Immigration Department have also been introduced.
The objectives of the arrangements are to:
(1) ensure that local pregnant women are given proper obstetric services and priority to use such services;
(2) limit the number of non-local pregnant women coming to Hong Kong to give births to a level that can be supported by our healthcare system; and
(3) deter dangerous behaviour of non-local pregnant women in seeking emergency hospital admissions through Accident and Emergency Departments shortly before labour.
As to the announcement by HA in August 2008 that the bookings for delivery in public hospitals would be closed for non-local pregnant women whose expected delivery dates fell between September and December this year, the purpose is to ensure the provision of adequate obstetric services in public hospitals for local expectant mothers during the obstetric peak season. HA will continue to implement appropriate measures for its obstetric services arrangements in response to the service demand. My replies to the various parts of the question are as follows.
(a) From February 1, 2007 to October 31, 2008, HA has recorded a total of 14,303 cases of non-local pregnant women who made bookings for antenatal check-up and delivery services. Since non-local pregnant women are not required to provide information about their spouses when using HA's services, HA can only make a rough estimation based on the information provided by some of the non-local pregnant women. The rough estimation indicates that among the non-local pregnant women who used HA's delivery services during the above period, about 5,800 of them were spouses of Hong Kong residents.
Since there have been changes in the service demand, charging mode and payment arrangement for HA's services used by non-local pregnant women with the implementation of the new obstetric service arrangements in February 2007, it is difficult for us to make a direct calculation of the HA's additional revenue after the implementation of the new obstetric service arrangements. From February 1, 2007 to October 31, 2008, the total revenue generated from the antenatal check-up and delivery services provided to non-local pregnant women by HA amounted to about $600 million.
In response to the increase in the overall demand for antenatal check-up and delivery services in 2007 and 2008, HA has provided additional beds and manpower for its obstetric services. A comparison between the figures in February 2007 and September 2008 indicates that there has been an increase in the number of obstetric beds (by 74) and healthcare professionals (by 14 doctors and 31 nurses, both in terms of full-time equivalent staff) in public hospitals.
(b) HA conducted a review of the new obstetric service arrangements in mid-2008. The review covered the effect of the new arrangements, manpower and staff training as well as the service capacity of HA. Reference had been made to the views of relevant organisations in the review. The findings of the review were reported to the HA Board in May 2008 and the relevant document has been uploaded onto the website of HA.
Regarding the charging arrangements for obstetric services available to non-local pregnant women, the level of fees was set with reference to the relevant service cost and the fees charged by private hospitals and the private services in HA. As a judicial review case related to this matter is still in progress, it would not be appropriate for us to give further response on that matter.
(c) As HA is still collating the statistics of November 2008, we can only provide the statistics between September and October 2007 and those between September to October 2008 for comparison. Data for these two periods, including the average number of obstetrics beds in public hospitals, the average utilisation rate of delivery rooms in public hospitals, and the number of non-local pregnant women who gave births in public hospitals without prior booking, are set out in the table at Annex.
(Note 1): "NEPs" means persons who do not fall under any of the categories below: -
(i) holders of Hong Kong Identity Card issued under the Registration of Persons Ordinance (Cap 177);
(ii) children who are Hong Kong residents and under 11 years of age;
(iii) other persons approved by the Chief Executive of HA.
Ends/Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Issued at HKT 15:40
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