LCQ22: Community care services for the elderly
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     Following is a question by Hon Leung Kwok-hung and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (July 3):

Question:

     Quite a number of members of the public and elderly people have complained to me that the shortage of places of a number of community care services for the elderly implemented by the Government in recent years has resulted in quite a number of elderly people having to wait for a long time for such services, and that support for the elderly who are waiting for such services is very much lacking. It is learnt that the situation is most acute in Kwun Tong and Sham Shui Po. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether it knows, the attendance of service users, the number of service places, and the utilisation rate of the services provided by Chin Wah Day Care Centre for the Elderly (the Centre) under the Hong Kong Christian Service located in Kwun Tong in each of the past five years (set out in Table 1); the number of occasions on which the number of elderly people serviced by the Centre had exceeded its number of service places in the past five years; given that conflicts between the elderly of the Centre (especially those using wheelchairs) and the public housing residents in Lok Wah Estate have occurred when they used the lifts together, whether the Government can install one to two lifts for the exclusive use by the elderly of the Centre; if not, of the reasons for that, and in what ways it can solve this problem within one to two months;

(b) as the authorities are identifying suitable sites in Kwun Tong for relocating the day care centre mentioned in (a), whether the Government had, in the past five years, tried to identify sites in the public housing estates in Kwun Tong for relocating the Centre and assessed the feasibility of such sites; if it had, set out the assessment result of each site it had considered each year in the following table; if not, how the Government addresses the needs of the elderly of the Centre;

          Name of public    Assessment result of
          housing estate    the site considered
          --------------    -------------------
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008

(c) whether the Government had, in the past five years, tried to identify sites in the private residential developments in Kwun Tong for relocating the day care centre mentioned in (a), and assessed the feasibility of such sites; if it had, set out the assessment result of each site it had considered each year in the following table; if not, how the Government addresses the needs of the elderly of the Centre;

         Name of private     
          residential       Assessment result of
          development       the site considered
         ---------------    -------------------
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008

(d) whether the Government had, in the past five years, tried to identify suitable vacant school premises in Kwun Tong for conversion into day care centres for the elderly, and assessed the feasibility of such premises; if it had, set out in the following table the assessment result of each of the vacant school premises it had considered each year; if not, how the Government addresses the needs of the elderly;

       Name of the school to
      which the vacant school
       premises considered
       formerly belonged         Assessment result
      ----------------------    ------------------
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008

(e) of the respective numbers of elderly people who died in each of the past five years while waiting for (i) day care centre for the elderly services, (ii) Integrated Home Care Services, (iii) Enhanced Home and Community Care Services, (iv) services of residential care homes for the elderly, and (v) nursing home services (set out in Table 2);

(f) of the respective numbers of elderly people who are currently waiting for and those who are receiving (i) Integrated Home Care Services and (ii) Enhanced Home and Community Care Services, in Kwun Tong and Sham Shui Po respectively (set out in Table 3);

(g) of the respective standards of the Social Welfare Department for the quantities of meat, vegetable and rice in the lunches and dinners provided under the meal delivery service of the Integrated Home Care Services (set out in Table 4);

(h) given that some operators of Integrated Home Care Services have raised funds publicly for subsidising the costs of meal services, whether the Government has reviewed if the funding provided to these operators is adequate; if it has, of the assessment results; if not, the reasons for that; and

(i) whether the Government has taken any measures to reduce the waiting time of the elderly in Kwun Tong and Sham Shui Po for meal delivery service under the Integrated Home Care Services; if it has, whether such measures can immediately solve the problem of the elderly having to wait for an excessively long time for such service; whether the Government will seek urgent funding approval from this Council in order to solve the problem of the excessive long waiting time for such services; if it will not, how the Government addresses the needs of the elderly who are waiting for such service?

Reply:

President,

     My reply to Hon Leung Kwok-hung's question is as follows:

(a) to (d) The Hong Kong Christian Service Chin Wah Day Care Centre for the Elderly (the Centre), located on the third floor of Chin Wah House, Lok Wah (South) Estate, Kwun Tong, has been in service since December 2002 to provide day care service for frail elderly people in the Kwun Tong District. Given that service users of the Centre (include frail elderly persons using wheelchairs) have to share the same lift with other residents of the housing estate concerned, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) discussed with the Housing Department (HD) in October 2010 and April 2013 respectively the feasibility of installing an additional lift for exclusive use by the service users of the Centre. However, as there are considerable technical difficulties and the location of the additional lift falls within the public area governed by the Deed of Mutual Covenant of the Estate, the proposal is considered not feasible. Nevertheless, SWD will continue to explore other improvement measures with HD. For example, subject to availability of resources, the Estate Management may consider coordinating the queuing for the lift and manage users flow during peak hours, so as to minimise the inconvenience caused to both the service users of the Centre and the estate residents. SWD has been trying to identify suitable premises, including those at public housing estates, for relocating the Centre but to no avail.  SWD will continue their efforts in this regard.

     The average monthly service output of the Centre over the past three years (i.e. 2010-2013) is set out in Table 5.

(e) The respective numbers of applicants who passed away in the past five years while waiting for places in the day care centre for the elderly services, Enhanced Home and Community Care Services (EHCCS), care and attention home and nursing home services are set out in Table 6.  

     Applicants for IHCS (Ordinary Cases) are not required to pass the frailty test. SWD's Central Waiting List for subsidised long term care services does not therefore capture the number of elderly people waiting for such service and those who passed away while waiting for such service.  

(f) At present, the number of Ordinary Cases and Frail Cases under IHCS and cases of EHCCS in Kwun Tong and Sham Shui Po respectively are set out in Table 7.

     Elderly persons applying for IHCS (Ordinary Cases) are not required to pass the frailty test.  The Central Waiting List for subsidised long-term care services of SWD does not capture the number of elderly people waiting for such service nor their waiting time. Elderly persons may apply for services directly from the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that provide the services. Individual NGOs will arrange for their own service allocation. Generally speaking, elderly persons with urgent needs will be given the priority. As at the end of May 2013, there were a total of 907 elderly people on the waiting list for IHCS (Frail Cases) and/or EHCCS.

(g) At present, the service arrangements of IHCS (including the quantity of meals) are determined by individual NGOs that operate the services. SWD does not maintain relevant information in this regard. NGOs concerned will prepare special meals for service users with health needs. The meal and quantity provided for service users are not identical.  

(h) Under the Lump Sum Grant Subvention System, when SWD allocates funding to the NGOs operating IHCS, it has allowed annual adjustments to the subvention item of "other charges" with reference to the changes in food cost. NGOs operating IHCS can deploy their subvention in a flexible manner to meet their operational needs.   

(i) Services under Ordinary Cases are arranged by individual service operators. Generally speaking, elderly people with urgent needs will be given the priority. Apart from Ordinary Cases, the Administration has also increased resources to provide other community care services to elderly persons whose long term care needs are confirmed by the frailty test. Such services, which include IHCS (Frail Cases), EHCCS, Pilot Scheme on Home Care Services for Frail Elders, and the new Pilot Scheme on Community Care Service Voucher for the Elderly to be launched in September 2013, will help support elderly people to age in the community.

Ends/Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Issued at HKT 15:48

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