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Following is a question by the Hon Wong Kwok-kin and a reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (December 5):
Question:
The population of Kowloon East will surge with the completion of the various projects in the Kai Tak Development Area, and the problem of ageing population is increasingly serious. According to the statistics of the Hospital Authority (HA), the population of the Kowloon East Hospital Cluster (KE Cluster) was 990 100 in 2011, and is estimated to rise to 1 097 000 in 2019, of which the proportion of people aged 65 or above will rise from the existing 13% to 15%. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it knows the respective median waiting time for the Accident and Emergency services and the first appointments in specialist out-patient clinics in the past three years, as well as the general outpatient attendances in 2011-2012 in KE Cluster; as it has been reported that the quota for the general out-patient clinics in KE Cluster will increase next year, of the details, and list the additional quota, implementation time and number of additional posts by hospital;
(b) as large-scale expansion works will be carried out in the United Christian Hospital (UCH) in KE Cluster, whether the Government knows if HA has formulated measures to properly meet the healthcare service demand of residents in KE Cluster while the expansion works for UCH are in progress; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c) as the demand for healthcare services in Kowloon East will increase with the growing and ageing population, whether the Government has planned to reserve land in the Kai Tak Development Area for the construction of a general hospital; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Improving healthcare services has all along been an important task of the Government. The Government's recurrent expenditure on healthcare in 2012-13 is nearly $45 billion, which has increased by more than 40% when compared with 2007-08. The amount of recurrent funding allocated to the Hospital Authority (HA) has also increased from $29.1 billion in 2007-08 to $40.4 billion in 2012-13.
Apart from increasing recurrent expenditure, we have also, in the aspect of capital investment, implemented numerous works projects including expansion, redevelopment, reprovisioning and renovation of existing hospitals, improvement of hospital facilities and equipment, and building new hospitals etc.
There are three hospitals under the Kowloon East Hospital Cluster (KE Cluster) of HA, namely United Christian Hospital (UCH), Tseung Kwan O Hospital (TKOH) and Haven of Hope Hospital (HHH). They mainly serve people living in Kwun Tong, Tseung Kwan O and part of Sai Kung. Healthcare services provided by the Cluster range from primary care in the community, specialist out-patient (SOP) services, accident and emergency (A&E) services to tertiary care.
My reply to the three parts of the question by the Hon Wong Kwok-kin is as follows:
(a) The general out-patient (GOP) services of HA are primarily targeted at the elderly, the low-income group and the chronically ill. Under the KE Cluster, there are currently five GOP clinics in Kwun Tong and three in Sai Kung (including Tseung Kwan O). For patients with chronic disease requiring follow-up consultations, they will be assigned a visiting timeslot after each consultation and do not need to make separate appointments. For those with episodic diseases, consultation timeslots at GOP clinics in the next 24 hours are available for booking through HA's telephone appointment system.
In 2011-12, a total of 816 554 attendances were recorded at the GOP clinics under the KE Cluster. The median waiting time for A&E services and that for first appointments in SOP clinics in the past three years are listed in Annex. The statistics show that the waiting time for critical, emergency and urgent patients at A&E Departments and that for priority 1 and priority 2 patients at SOP clinics have all been in line with HA's performance pledges.
HA has been actively enhancing its GOP services, including renovating the premises and upgrading facilities of GOP clinics, streamlining patient flow and improving the clinics' environment so as to keep pace with the development of GOP services. Take the Kwung Tong District as an example, HA will strengthen and enhance the primary care services in that district in the coming years to dovetail the Kwun Tong redevelopment project. Phase I of the Ngau Tau Kok Jockey Club GOP Clinic project was completed in 2010-11, and Phase II of the project is underway. Moreover, the Kwun Tong Jockey Club Health Centre GOP Clinic will also be expanded and ungraded in 2013-14 under the Kwun Tong redevelopment project. At the same time, HA is trying to recruit additional staff as far as possible to increase the consultation capacity of the GOP clinics under the KE Cluster by about 65 000 in 2012-13. HA will continue to monitor the operation and service utilisation of its GOP clinics, deploy manpower flexibly and co-ordinate the services among its various clusters with a view to meeting patients' needs for public primary care services.
(b) The overall service strategy of the KE Cluster is to make good use of its existing resources, coordinate and rationalise the healthcare services in the Kowloon East region, and make proactive efforts to develop service improvement programmes to meet the increasing service demand in the region.
As for the UCH Expansion Project, the KE Cluster will devise a detailed decantation plan with the HA Head Office to ensure that the existing services provided for the public will be maintained during implementation of the expansion works. HA will update the public on the progress and collect their views through various channels, such as District Councils, on a regular basis and address their concerns as appropriate.
In fact, work projects of other healthcare facilities under the KE Cluster will have been completed in phases for improvement of services when the UCH expansion works are in progress. For instance, the Ambulatory Block of the TKOH already started operation in March 2012. With upgraded facilities provided therein, the new Ambulatory Block is expected to enhance healthcare services such as out-patient and day surgery services in the KE Cluster. In addition, the improvement works of GOP clinics mentioned in Part (a) of my reply have already commenced in phases to provide better services for the public.
(c) In planning for provision of public healthcare services, HA takes into account a number of factors including the projected demand for healthcare services having regard to population growth and demographic changes, the growth rate of services of individual specialties and the possible changes in healthcare services utilisation pattern etc. We have already reserved a site near the proposed Centre of Excellence in Paediatrics at Kai Tak Development Area for hospital development, and we will conduct review as appropriate to ensure that the long-term demand for healthcare services in the Kowloon District will be met.
Ends/Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Issued at HKT 13:31
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