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Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Kwok-che and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (July 4):
Question:
Recently, some medical social workers (MSWs) have complained to me that the working conditions in some medical social services units (MSSUs) are unsatisfactory, e.g. the lack of independent and confidential interview rooms, the heavy workload, and the failure to increase the manpower of MSWs over the years in spite of the increased number of beds. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it knows the respective numbers of beds in various public hospitals and the respective numbers of MSWs in the MSSUs under the Social Welfare Department and those under the Hospital Authority in various hospitals in the past five years (and set out the breakdown in Table 1 and Table 2);
(b) whether the authorities have established a standard ratio of hospital beds to MSWs at present; if they have, of the details; if not; the reasons for that;
(c) whether the authorities will increase the number of MSWs in the future in order to cope with the increasing number of patients and workload; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(d) whether it knows the respective numbers and areas of offices and interview rooms for MSSUs in various public hospitals at present (and set out the breakdown in Table 3); the number of MSSUs without independent interview rooms?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the Hon Cheung Kwok-che's question is as follows:
(a), (b) and (c) The Medical Social Workers (MSWs) of the Social Welfare Department (SWD) and the Hospital Authority (HA) are stationed respectively at different public hospitals and specialist out-patient (SOP) clinics to provide suitable services to patients and/or their families with welfare needs. SWD and HA do not set a ratio between the number of hospital beds and the number of MSWs. In drawing up the appropriate staffing complement of MSWs in new hospitals, reference will be made to the overall situation of hospitals of the same category with similar scale, including the numbers of hospital beds, cases, attendances at accident and emergency departments and SOP clinics, etc. MSWs provide services not only for in-patients but also patients of accident and emergency departments, day hospitals and SOP clinics. Also, the workload of MSWs generally increases along with the introduction of HA's new initiatives or measures and the increased complexity of cases, and cannot be fully reflected by the number of hospital beds alone. Therefore, SWD and HA do not take the number of hospital beds as the sole indicator in creating MSW posts. Likewise, it is not appropriate to simply compare the numbers of hospital beds and MSWs in individual hospitals.
To dovetail with HA's new initiatives for various services and strengthen the provision of medical social services for patients and/or their families with welfare service needs, SWD provided a total of 54 additional MSWs in the past five years. As such, the total number of MSWs increased from 377 in 2007-08 to 431 in 2011-12, representing an increase of more than 14%. The average number of cases served by each MSW also decreased from 72 cases in 2007-08 to 64 cases in 2011-12. Details are tabulated below -
Year Number of Average number of cases
MSWs served by each MSW
2007-08 377 72
2008-09 381 70
2009-10 386 69
2010-11 400 68
2011-12 431 64
As for HA, its various clusters provided a total of 28 additional MSWs in the past five years. As a result, the total number of MSWs increased from 145 in 2007-08 to 173 in 2011-12, representing an increase of about 20%. The monthly average number of attendance served by each MSW also decreased from 120 in 2007-08 to 106 in 2011-12. Details are tabulated below -
Year Number of Monthly average number of
MSWs attendance served by each MSW
2007-08 145 120
2008-09 148 118
2009-10 149 115
2010-11 155 116
2011-12 173 106
Note:
1. The number of MSWs in the above table is calculated on full-time equivalent basis, including HA's permanent, contract and temporary staff.
2. The number of MSWs does not include those working in HA Head Office.
3. Caseload of MSWs kept by HA is calculated on the basis of monthly attendance served by each MSW, rather than the number of cases. Such basis is different from that adopted by SWD.
The Government will review the workload of MSWs from time to time and assess the need for increasing the manpower of MSWs having regard to the number of cases, the complexity of cases in related hospitals and clinics, mode of collaboration with health care personnel, development of HA's new initiatives and service, etc.
(d) The layouts, sizes, numbers and distributions of offices and interview rooms (if any) for various departments (including the Medical Social Service Units (MSSUs)) in different hospitals and SOP clinics vary according to factors such as service type, service demand and physical environment, etc. Besides, independent offices are set up for some MSWs in the vicinity of SOP clinics or day hospitals. Hence, it is not appropriate to compare the area of offices and interview rooms of individual MSSUs.
Currently, the majority of SWD's MSSUs attached to HA have interview rooms, while the rest may use independent offices of MSWs or dedicated rooms in some wards to conduct interviews with patients or their families. In case there is no interview room available for MSWs to conduct counselling, they may arrange with the hospital for temporary use of rooms so as to protect the privacy of service users. SWD and HA will continue to closely monitor the situation with a view to enhancing the interview facilities for MSSUs in need and ensuring that the privacy of patients and their families can be protected in the course of service.
Ends/Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Issued at HKT 15:18
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