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LCQ19: Manpower requirements of healthcare staff
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     Following is a question by the Hon Chan Hak-kan and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (April 29):

Question:

     In reply to my question on the Estimates of Expenditure 2009-2010, the Administration revealed that the turnover rates of some grades of healthcare staff in the Hospital Authority (HA) are on the high side.  For example, the projected turnover rates of senior medical officers/associate consultants and medical officers/residents (specialist) in obstetrics and gynaecology departments in 2008-09 are as high as 19.1% and 31.0% respectively.  On the other hand, at its meeting held early this month, the Task Force on Economic Challenges agreed to study how to develop six economic areas with high potential in Hong Kong, which included medical services.  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether it knows:

(i) if HA has ascertained the reasons for the departure of its healthcare staff other than those who left because they had reached the retirement age; if so, of the results; if not, the reasons for that;

(ii) how HA assesses the turnover of its healthcare staff for the next five years, and of the specific assessment method used; and

(iii) apart from improving pay and conditions of service, if HA will implement other staff retaining measures focusing on the specialties with a high turnover of healthcare staff;

(b) whether it has assessed if the employment of additional staff by private medical institutions as a result of the development of the medical services industry will aggravate the turnover of HA's healthcare staff; and

(c) whether it will conduct a large-scale study to assess the healthcare staff requirements of both public and private medical sectors in the next five years; if so, of the details, and how it deals with the problem of shortage of healthcare staff; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

President,

     In 2008/09, the turnover rates of various groups of healthcare staff in the Hospital Authority (HA) were within the normal range of about 3% to 6% as those recorded in the past few years.  HA has filled the vacancies and strengthened its manpower support by internal promotion and recruitment of fresh graduates and serving healthcare professionals.  On the whole, as at the end of March 2009, there has been a substantive increase in the number of doctors, nurses and allied health staff in HA as compared with that in the same period last year.  An overview of the healthcare manpower situation in HA in 2008/09 (April 2008 - March 2009) is at Annex 1.  The turnover and appointment of doctors in HA in the same period, with a breakdown by specialty and rank, is at Annex 2.

     My reply to various parts of the question is as follows:

(a)(i) According to the personal feedback collected from departing healthcare staff by HA, the main reasons for their departure include taking up private practice, family reasons, switching to jobs with higher pay, pursuing further studies or other personal reasons.

(ii) In assessing the turnover of staff in the coming years, HA takes into account a number of factors including staff turnover in the past, the age profile of existing staff, the macro-economic situation, and the market situation in the private healthcare sector.  HA also makes adjustments in its assessment in light of other prevailing factors.  For instance, after taking account of the turnover rate of doctors in recent months and making initial assessment of the impact of the financial tsunami, HA estimates that the turnover rate of healthcare staff in 2009/10 will be lower than that in 2008/09.

(iii) Since 2007, HA has implemented new career structures for doctors, nurses and allied health staff.  Apart from improving the remuneration package and terms of appointment for healthcare staff, more training opportunities are available to staff to facilitate their professional development.  All these are conducive to staff retention.

     A series of initiatives have been/will be implemented by HA in individual staff groups to reduce turnover and increase manpower.  Details are as follows:

Doctors
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     HA has implemented a series of pilot doctor work reform programmes since 2007.  HA aims to reduce the average weekly work hours of doctors to not more than 65 hours by the end of 2009, and to gradually adjust their continuous work hours to a reasonable level so as to boost the morale of doctors and reduce their turnover.

Nurses
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     To enhance the supply of nurses in the long run, HA has re-opened some of its nursing schools in 2008.  At the same time, HA has also introduced a series of measures to retain and recruit nurses, including reducing the workload of nurses (e.g. by strengthening clerical support and setting up 24-hour pharmacies), improving their working environment (e.g. by provision of more electric beds and enhancement of ward security systems), and allowing greater flexibility in the recruitment of nurses (e.g. by establishment of a central reserve of nurses and employment of part-time nurses).

Allied health practitioners
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     To further enhance the manpower support of allied health staff, HA has conducted local and overseas recruitment for the Radiation Therapist, Diagnostic Radiographer and Podiatrist grades in 2008/09.  As there is no podiatrist training in Hong Kong, HA has put in place a sponsorship scheme for training of podiatrists under which trainees are sent overseas to receive professional training.  Trainees who have completed their training have started to provide services in HA since 2008.

     In addition, HA has set up the Institute of Advanced Allied Health Studies in 2007 to enhance the training of allied health staff and improve their skills.  Training provided by the Institute includes systematic in-service training for new recruits.

(b) & (c) The Department of Health (DH) conducts Health Manpower Surveys (HMSs) on healthcare professionals (including 12 types of registrable healthcare professionals, e.g. doctors and nurses) on a regular basis to facilitate manpower planning by the Administration.

     Based on the long-term manpower requirements of various healthcare professions, the Administration gives advice to the University Grants Committee (UGC) from time to time on the student number targets for individual healthcare professions, which serve as a reference for institutions in formulating their academic development plans.  Taking into account the Administration's advice for the 2009/10 - 2011/12 triennium, UGC will provide 70 additional first-year first-degree (FYFD) places in full-time equivalent (fte) terms for medicine, 40 additional FYFD places (fte) and 50 additional sub-degree intake places (fte) for nursing, and 23 additional FYFD places (fte) for allied health professions starting from the 2009/10 academic year.  UGC will also provide 60 additional senior year intake places for nursing degree programmes starting from 2010/11.

     Meanwhile, in carrying out its overall manpower planning, HA will make assessment on its manpower requirements and the turnover of healthcare staff so as to make appropriate adjustment to its manpower strategy.  HA will continue its efforts to reduce the turnover of its healthcare staff and enhance its manpower support to meet its operational and service needs through the measures stated in paragraph (a)(iii) above.

Ends/Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Issued at HKT 16:46

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