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Following is a question by the Dr Hon Joseph Lee and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (June 19):
Question:
Regarding the employment of staff in the allied health grades, i.e. medical laboratory technologists, radiographers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, optometrists, ancillary dental workers, audiologists, podiatrists, dietitians, orthoptists, clinical psychologists, prosthetists, speech therapists and dispensers, by the Hospital Authority (HA), will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
(a) the following statistics in respect of each allied health grade in each of the past three years (set out in four separate tables):
(i) number of new recruits,
(ii) number of staff who left the service,
(iii) number of cases handled by each staff member per day on average, and
(iv) time taken for handling a case on average;
(b) the current manpower shortage in various allied health grades;
(c) the number of additional staff HA plans to recruit for each allied health grade in each of the coming three years; and
(d) the following in three years' time from now, as estimated by HA:
(i) the respective numbers of new cases and old cases to be handled by each staff member per day on average (set out in table 1),
(ii) the average time to be taken for handling a new case and an old case respectively (set out in table 1), and
(iii) whether the waiting time for various allied health services will be shortened; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the various parts of the question is as follows:
(a) (i) The number of newly recruited allied health professionals under the Hospital Authority (HA) in each year is set out in Table 2.
(ii) The number of HA's allied health professionals who left the service each year is set out in Table 3.
(iii) and (iv) The numbers of allied health professionals, outpatient attendances and community allied health attendances of HA are set out in Table 4.
The number of the above allied health professionals and their proportion to inpatients in 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 are set out in Table 5.
Besides, the number of radiological examinations carried out and the quantity of drugs dispensed by HA each year is set out in Table 6.
The job nature of the medical laboratory technologist and radiotherapist grades is diversified and there is no standardised method to collect data on the examinations or treatments these staff perform. Thus, figures in relation to the service capacity are not available.
The conditions of patients and the services they require vary. The time needed by the allied health professionals to handle each case depends on various factors such as the type, complexity and mode of treatment of the case. In short, the manpower ratio of different allied health grades, their service capacity and the time taken for each case cannot be compared directly.
(b) As at March 31, 2013, there were a total of 215 vacancies in HA's allied health grades. Their main distribution is set out in Table 7.
HA anticipates that most of the vacancies will be filled through recruitment of local and overseas graduates.
(c) HA plans to recruit an additional 610 allied health professionals in 2013-14. HA conducts regular manpower planning for allied health professionals, with the most recent one conducted in 2010. According to the forecasts made at that time, 6 463 allied health professionals will be required in 2016. The breakdown by grade is set out in Table 8.
As the related manpower planning is conducted once every five years, HA cannot provide the number of allied health professionals needed to be recruited in 2014-15 and 2015-16. HA conducts manpower deployment and service planning in the light of service needs, manpower situation and technological development etc. annually in order to cope with the demand for healthcare services.
(d) HA is reviewing the manpower requirement and service provision (including the waiting time for various kinds of service) of each allied health grade so as to estimate the number of additional allied health professionals needed to be recruited in the coming years. Upon completion of the study, HA will review the findings and introduce various measures to cope with the development of the allied health grades as well as the service demand.
Ends/Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Issued at HKT 16:16
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