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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
In response to the policy agenda of healthcare services in the Policy Address today (October 13), the Chairman of the Hospital Authority (HA) Mr Anthony Wu said: "The Authority is delighted to learn about the policy agenda and initiatives in healthcare services mapped out by the Chief Executive of the HKSAR in his Policy Address delivered today. HA will continue to ensure the efficient use of public resources in improving its service quality and work together with its dedicated frontline staff to meet the ever-increasing demand for public healthcare services."
"We are grateful to the commitment of the Government in allocating an additional recurrent subvention of $870 million per year for HA from 2009-10 to 2011-12. HA will continue to use the additional resources to enhance and improve public hospital services to cope with the increasing demand and ageing population. For instance, we will continue to reduce the waiting time for some specialist services and magnetic resonance imaging and computerised tomography scanning," Mr Wu remarked.
On major service programmes, one of the focuses is to launch a number of initiatives in coming year to enhance the support for mental health patients. These include the rolling out of Case Management Programme for patients with severe mental illness to five more districts (Eastern, Sham Shui Po, Sha Tin, Tuen Mun and Wan Chai). The Integrated Mental Health Programme will also be expanded to cover all seven hospital clusters; and to expand the service targets of EASY (Early Assessment and Detection of Young Persons with Psychosis) Programme to include adults.
Furthermore, the HA professional team would be expanded to enhance support for autistic children. On the use of psychiatric drugs, more new drugs with proven efficacy would be introduced in HA drug formulary.
On staff aspect, HA will continue to enhance training and development for its health care workforce, including doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, and will also re-open certain nursing training schools to train more nurses with a view to enhancing the professionalism and competency.
On the other hand, HA will fully support the Government in the planning of new hospital projects which include the building of a new hospital in Tin Shui Wai to meet the needs for hospital services in the district. The hospital in Tin Shui Wai is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2016. Furthermore, Yan Chai Hospital will be re-developed to meet the increasing service demand in Tsuen Wan district and to upgrade the facilities to meet the standards of a modern community hospital, and the construction works will also be completed in 2016. The preparation is on-going for the establishment of a medical centre of excellence in paediatrics with over 400 beds to improve the quality of clinical services to child patients suffering from complex and serious illnesses.
Ends/Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Issued at HKT 22:17
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