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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
Over 40 distinguished Mainland, overseas and local speakers will share their expert views, knowledge and experience on various health topics of interest with 4,000 healthcare and academic professionals participating in the two-day annual Hospital Authority (HA) Convention 2012 being held today and tomorrow (May 7 and 8).
There will be Plenary and Symposium sessions focusing on the Convention's main theme "enHAncing Health" and the following subthemes:
- Enhancing Organisational Effectiveness
- Engaging Community
- Providing Quality Healthcare
- Modernising Healthcare
The HA Convention 2012 was officially opened this morning by the Financial Secretary, Mr John C Tsang; the Director-General of the Department of Medical Service Regulation of the Ministry of Health, Mr Zhang Zongjiu; the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow; the HA Chairman, Mr Anthony Wu; and the HA Chief Executive, Dr Leung Pak-yin.
In his welcoming address, Mr Wu said, "When the Hospital Authority came into being 21 years ago, we had about 2,000 doctors and 16,000 nurses. Now we have over 5,000 doctors and 21,000 nurses." He added that the Government's funding has more than doubled over this period to around $40 billion this year.
While there were questions on why the increases in manpower and funding had not been matched with a significant reduction in waiting time in some of the services nor an easing of manpower shortage, Mr Wu said it should be noted that in the past 21 years, 10 new hospitals and major extensions were opened, general outpatient services were taken over from the Government and, more importantly, the population was ageing fast.
"The number of our over-65s has jumped from half a million in 1991 to almost a million in 2012, and this figure will reach 1.2 million in 2017," he said.
Elaborating on the impact of an elderly population on HA service, Mr Wu noted that the number of elderly people hospitalised was four times that of the non-elderly. "In 2010, 1.3 beds were required for every 1,000 people under 65 whereas for the over-65s, 11.8 beds were needed nine times more. Last year, 50 per cent of our hospital bed days were for the elderly," he said.
Mr Wu went on to highlight the substantial increases in throughput in the HA's services: "Our inpatient care and specialist outpatient attendances have each doubled as compared to those in 1992/93, our general outpatient attendances have gone up five times and our number of major and ultra-major operations has gone up almost three times."
He remarked that advances in medical technologies improved quality of care while at the same time consumed a lot more resources.
"While robotic surgery for prostate cancer reduces blood transfusion from 65 per cent to 5 per cent and the average post-operation hospital stay from 18 to seven days, the total operation time is doubled, not counting that the preparation time and the consumable cost are 10 times those of the conventional method," Mr Wu said.
Citing the example of laparoscopic colorectal surgery, which reduced the length of hospital stays, Mr Wu said, "The average cost on operation consumables of laparoscopic surgery is three times more than that of conventional surgery and it takes a longer time to do it."
He said he believed that the crux of the challenges was the need for more healthcare staff and hence the HA would require utmost attention to retain and recruit staff. "At the same time, we must continue to explore ways to streamline our services and procedures and do our best to enhance quality and safety. We must also continue to explore and bring in more public-private partnerships and co-operation," he said.
Mr Wu concluded his address by expressing a note of thanks to the staff of the HA for their support and contributions over the last 21 years. He said he was confident that the HA would take tomorrow by storm and move healthcare services in Hong Kong to new heights.
Delivering his keynote speech "Enhancing health through good governance and risk management in the HA", Dr Leung began with recapitulating the healthcare services provided by the HA along a person's different stages of life, from prenatal and adolescent services to elderly services and from mental health and chronic diseases services to 24-hour accident and emergency services.
He pointed out that with limited resources coupled with changing and evolving health-care requirements from patients, HA services had to be co-ordinated with each other and carefully planned.
Dr Leung highlighted good corporate governance as a prerequisite for the HA to align its resources and services with patients' needs in delivering its mission successfully.
"It is imperative for us to ensure that the huge resources are managed in a fair and cost-effective manner to create the greatest benefits for the community's health. Most importantly, we provide services which many citizens otherwise would be unable to afford or obtain elsewhere. We must ensure that these services are affordable and of a high quality," he said.
"It is likewise imperative that resources are allocated and used transparently. To this end, we need to discharge our corporate governance responsibilities in a serious, professional and committed manner."
Dr Leung continued to elaborate on the comprehensive annual planning and risk-analysis process as an integrated approach in resources allocation.
"We gather input from as many different sources as we can. All input and views are discussed at the interactive forums, then considered and prioritised for funding through the Government's Resource Allocation Exercise," he said.
"Those approved by the HA Board for implementation and other core service programmes are eventually incorporated into our annual plan as programme targets to be achieved within a specific time frame," Dr Leung remarked. He said that it is a very considered, thoughtful and intensive process that involves as many people and as many levels as possible, with engagement as the key.
He went on to highlight the process of identifying and managing risk: "Our corporate risk analysis exercise evaluates and measures the potential consequences of every aspect of work we are currently doing, and the ways we can address them.
"It also takes into account other risks that might arise and affect the community in the foreseeable future. Once we have identified such risks, appropriate initiatives will be taken to address them with the resources available."
Dr Leung highlighted measures in the multi-faceted approach in addressing the risk factor of manpower shortage, which included improved career progression, part-time employment, improved terms and conditions for front-line staff, and measures to ease their workload.
Further pointing out that medical equipment would be modernised to improve quality, he said, "We will invest around $635 million to replace and purchase additional medical equipment that is critical to our services."
Dr Leung added, "Another potential health and safety risk is our ability to respond to critical incidents, such as natural disasters and chemical, biological, radiation and nuclear safety risks." He said that a stepped-up communication network, strengthened training and upgraded equipment would enhance capability in incident response.
In his concluding remarks, Dr Leung reiterated the importance of good corporate governance and effective structures and processes for risk assessment and management. "These will enable us to allocate our resources in a more systematic and effective way, and ultimately will result in an optimal health-care system and a healthier community," he said.
Ends/Monday, May 7, 2012
Issued at HKT 18:07
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