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Following is a question by Dr Hon Pan Pey-chyou and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (June 23):
Question:
A senior citizen with limited mobility told me earlier that as he was not qualified to use the non-emergency ambulance transfer service provided by the Hospital Authority (HA), therefore, every time he needed to go to a clinic for consultation, he had no alternative but to use the Easy-Access Transport Services (ETS) provided by the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation. He pointed out that in the past few months, owing to unsuccessful attempts to book the transfer service, he had to defer follow-up medical appointments on two occasions. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) what transport services are provided by the authorities to patients with limited mobility;
(b) whether it knows the conditions to be met by patients for using non-emergency ambulance transfer service, and of the details of such conditions;
(c) which government departments, public organisations or bodies provide non-emergency ambulance transfer services to patients at present; whether it knows the number of vehicles deployed for such services, and among such vehicles, the number of those designated to transfer HA patients and their accompanying carers to public hospitals and clinics;
(d) whether it knows the number of people who used non-emergency ambulance transfer service and ETS in the past three years;
(e) whether it knows the statistics in the past three years on HA patients' alteration of follow-up appointment dates or cancellation of follow-up appointments because no transfer service was available owing to insufficient vehicles; if such statistics are not available, whether HA plans to collect the relevant data; if it will not, of the reasons for that; and
(f) whether the authorities will increase non-emergency ambulance transfer service and ETS?
Reply:
President,
(a) and (b) The Government is providing transport services to patients with mobility-disability mainly through the non-emergency ambulance transfer service (NEATS) and the Easy-Access Transport Service (ETS) of the Hospital Authority (HA). HA's NEATS primarily provides point-to-point transfer service between patients' homes and hospitals or specialist out-patient clinics (SOPC) for geriatric day hospital patients, discharged patients (in-patients or patients who have received treatment at Accident and Emergency Departments) and SOPC patients. The key target clients of NEATS are mobility-handicapped patients who are unable to use transportation such as bus, taxi and Rehabus. Patients have to meet HA's established criteria and guidelines for NEATS in order to receive the services. For example, they should be stretcher-bound patients, patients who need to use oxygen, wheelchair-bound patients (whose residence not accessible by lift), aged patients in need who live alone and have to rely on walking aid, mentally or sensorily (e.g. eyesight) impaired patients who are not assisted by friends or relatives on discharge from hospital. In general, priority of service is given to discharged patients and patients to be transferred from one hospital to another. Except for patients for transfer to another hospital, applications for NEATS from other patients including SOPC patients, geriatric day hospital patients and discharged patients will be first assessed by healthcare staff before transfer services are provided.
HA's ETS, which is operated by the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation (HKSR), provides transfer services between homes and hospitals or clinics for patients aged above 60 with minor mobility-disability. Unlike patients served by NEATS, the target clients of ETS are those with relatively minor mobility-disability and therefore ETS will only transfer the patients to designated points near their homes instead of providing direct door-to-door transfer.
(c) On transfer service for patients, the Auxiliary Medical Service (AMS) has a total of six non-emergency ambulances to provide transfer service mainly to patients who are in need of special care, such as those who need to use oxygen or are suffering from communicable diseases, stretcher-bound and wheelchair-bound and thus are unable to use public transportation. The Hong Kong St. John Ambulance Brigade also has three ambulances to provide fee-paying transfer service for patients seeking medical consultation or discharged from private hospitals.
In addition, the Government subvents HKSR to operate the Rehabus Service to provide transport service for work, school or follow-up medical appointment, etc., for people with difficulties in using public transportation. Some elderly homes or rehabilitation service institutions subvented by the Social Welfare Department also have vehicles to provide transfer services for users to attend follow-up medical appointment or various kinds of activities. Moreover, the HKSR also operates the Accessible Hire Car service through telephone booking, providing transport service to people with mobility-disability to attend follow-up medical appointment.
(d) HA has a total of 133 non-emergency ambulances to serve patients of hospitals and clinics under different clusters as well as persons required to accompany the patients. There are a total of 24 buses to provide transfer services under ETS. The numbers of persons served by the two services in the past three years are as follows:
Number of persons served
NEATS ETS
2007/08 349,230 144,959
2008/09 370,371 146,466
2009/10 386,612 157,173
(e) The reason for patients to change the dates of or cancel their follow-up medical appointments varies. HA has not collected information concerning the change of dates or cancellation of follow-up appointments by patients due to the lack of transfer service. In general, applications for NEATS from discharged patients or patients to be transferred to other hospital are mostly made on the day for the service and HA will endeavour to deliver the transfer service on the same day. In the past three months (i.e. from March to May), there were only three applications which were not dealt with on the same day and necessitate the arrangement for transfer on the next day. Healthcare staff will also arrange special transfer service for patients in light of their conditions. In 2009-10, a total of some 1,600 trips of special NEATS were provided by different HA clusters. As for ETS, HKSR provides the service on a first-come-first-served basis. Applications from patients will be placed on a waiting list if the quota is full on that day. Under special circumstances, HKSR will try to cope with the application for service in view of patient's request.
(f) The numbers of persons using NEATS and the ETS have increased steadily over the past three years. In order to enhance the services, HA has increased the manpower for provision of NEATS by 12% from 315 in 2005 to 353 in 2009. HA will keep the two services under review having regard to the service demand, including to actively explore improvements of the booking procedures of ETS in order to facilitate transfer of patients to and from hospitals or clinics more effectively.
Ends/Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Issued at HKT 15:40
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