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Following is a question by the Hon Wong Kwok-hing and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (June 9):
Question:
The Financial Secretary indicated in his Budget Speech of this year that, the Working Group on Primary Care, chaired by the Secretary for Food and Health (SFH), has put forward a number of proposals to strengthen primary care services, which include proposals on enhancing primary dental services and oral health promotion programmes, particularly those for the elderly. SFH has also indicated that there is a plan to allocate $21 million for the enhancement of services provided under the dental care scheme for the elderly in need. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the latest progress of the aforesaid scheme and when the details of the scheme will be announced (including the expected number of elderly people to be provided with the services, the scope of services and eligibility criteria of the participants for the scheme);
(b) whether the aforesaid scheme will involve public-private partnership; if so, of the details, and how the authorities will, in implementing the public-private partnership scheme, monitor the fees charged by private healthcare institutions, so as to ensure that such charges are set at reasonable levels and thereby safeguard the interests of members of the public; and
(c) given that there have been comments that the utilisation rates of the Elderly Health Care Voucher Pilot Scheme have been on the low side because the age requirement set for eligible elderly recipients is too high and the amount of subsidy is too small, hence failing to achieve the expected result, whether the authorities will draw on the experience gained and set a lower age requirement for eligible elderly recipients as well as a higher level of subsidy amount when launching the aforesaid scheme, so as to benefit more elderly people?
Reply:
President,
The Working Group on Primary Care chaired by the Secretary for Food and Health has put forward a series of strategic proposals to enhance primary care services, including proposals on primary dental services and oral health promotion. The Government has earmarked $22 million in the estimates of expenditure for 2010-11 for implementing the proposals on enhancing primary dental services and promoting oral health, with particular consideration given to providing appropriate dental services for the elderly in need.
The Government is working in collaboration with the dental profession, including the Hong Kong Dental Association, to devise feasible programmes to enhance primary dental services and promote oral health. Matters to be discussed include identification of target groups, models of collaboration with the dental profession and other dental service providers (e.g. public-private partnership), subsidisation model, etc, and how to provide appropriate dental services targeting at the elderly in need. It is expected that details of the service programmes can be finalised and announced around end of this year.
The Government launched a three-year Elderly Health Care Voucher Pilot Scheme on January 1, 2009 to provide five healthcare vouchers of $50 each annually to elders aged 70 or above to partially subsidise their use of private primary care services, including preventive care services. The vouchers can also be used for dental services. As at May 30, 2010, a total of 229 dentists have enrolled in this Pilot Scheme and about 11,580 attendances involve the use of vouchers to receive dental services.
Ends/Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Issued at HKT 14:16
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