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Following is a question by the Dr Hon Joseph Lee and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (January 13):
Question:
Regarding the manpower of nurses in the Hospital Authority (HA), will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) the numbers of nurses who had departed/retired from public hospitals under HA in each of the past three years, with a breakdown by the hospital and specialty to which such nurses belonged, as well as by their rank and length of service, and among such vacancies, the number of those which have been filled at present; if such vacancies have not yet been filled, of the reasons for that, and the expected time for them to be filled;
(b) if HA has adopted new measures to retain nurses, so as to prevent departure of nurses from its public hospitals; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c) if there were nurses who had reached the retirement age and had applied for deferment of their retirement in the past three years; if so, of the number of such applications and the reasons for deferring retirement, with a breakdown by the rank of the applicant; whether it has assessed if such applications will impede the promotion opportunities of serving nurses?
Reply:
President,
(a) In the past few years, the nursing manpower of the Hospital Authority (HA) has been increasing continuously. From April 1, 2007 to November 30, 2009, the number of full-time equivalent nurses in HA increased from 19,212 to 19,885.
The turnover figures of nurses (including retiring nurses) in the HA Head Office and various hospital clusters in the past three years by rank, specialty and length of service are at Annex. In 2007/08, the number of departed nurses was 844, including 75 retiring nurses, and the overall turnover rate of nurses for the whole year was 4.5%. In 2008/09, the number of departed nurses was 877, including 97 retiring nurses, and the overall turnover rate of nurses for the whole year was 4.7%. In 2009/10 (as at November 30), the number of departed nurses was 510, including 155 retiring nurses, and the overall turnover rate of nurses for the whole year is estimated at 4.0%. Based on the general circumstances of the nursing profession, a steady turnover rate of around 4%, with continuous replenishment with new recruits, is considered normal.
HA fills its vacancies of nurses (including turnover vacancies and newly created nurse positions to cope with service and operational needs) through external recruitment and internal promotion. Vacancies of junior nurse posts are generally filled by external recruitment. As for vacancies of promotion posts, HA would select and promote suitable nurses to fill the vacancies through internal recruitment as far as possible.
In the past three years (i.e. from April 1, 2007 to November 30, 2009), HA has filled 2,392 vacancies of nurses and 1,457 vacancies at the rank of Advanced Practice Nurse or above through external recruitment and internal promotion respectively. On the whole, the number of vacancies filled exceeds the number of turnover.
(b) To strengthen the retention of nurses, HA has implemented a number of initiatives to enhance the professional development of nurses and broaden their promotion pathway. These include strengthening clinical and specialist training for nurses, as well as the introduction of a new three-tier nursing career structure by phases from June 2008 to provide nurses with a clinical promotion ladder in addition to the existing nursing management promotion pathway. Under the new structure, HA has created the post of Nurse Consultant to broaden the clinical career development pathway of nurses; provided higher rate of allowance to Department Operations Managers working in large departments; and established additional Advanced Practice Nurse positions in clinical departments to provide more supervisory support.
At the same time, to strengthen the recruitment of nurses, HA has implemented in recent years several measures to improve the employment conditions of nurses. These include raising the starting pay of nurses, extending the contract period of Registered Nurses to six years, and providing permanent employment opportunities to eligible full-time contract Registered Nurses. Moreover, HA has also implemented various measures to improve the working arrangements of nurses, including reducing the non-clinical work handled by nurses, improving the equipments frequently used by nurses to alleviate their workload, as well as increasing the flexibility in recruitment and employing more part-time nurses, etc.
(c) In the past few years, only a very small number of nurses in HA who reached the retirement age had applied for and were approved deferment of retirement. The impact on the promotion prospect of existing nurses is insignificant.
Ends/Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Issued at HKT 15:09
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