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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Chairman of the Hospital Authority (HA), Mr Anthony Wu, made the following statement in response to the policy agenda for health-care services in the 2011-12 Policy Address today (October 12):
The Authority welcomes the Government's support and allocation of additional funding to enhance public hospital services and the training of health-care personnel. The HA will continue to ensure the efficient use of public resources in improving its service quality and work together with its dedicated front-line staff to meet the ever-increasing demand for public health-care services.
We are most delighted that the expansion project of United Christian Hospital has been given the green light and would like to thank the Government for the ongoing support in improving health-care facilities around the territory. The North Lantau Hospital and the expansion of Tseung Kwan O Hospital will be completed in late 2012 and in 2013 respectively, while the paediatric medical centre at Kai Tak will be completed in 2016.
We are looking forward to the continual support of the Government in other long-awaited hospital improvement projects, such as the redevelopment of Kwong Wah Hospital and Queen Mary Hospital.
The key service improvement programmes of public hospitals in the coming year will include the increase in the number of neonatal intensive care beds by 10 per cent in five hospital clusters; enhanced haemodialysis services for end-stage renal disease patients; enhanced magnetic resonance imaging and computerised tomography scanning services for the diagnosis of critical illnesses; extension of the Case Management Programme to four more districts to provide support for people with severe mental illness; and expanding the coverage of the Drug Formulary to provide more drugs with higher efficacy.
Ends/Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Issued at HKT 18:23
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