*********************
Following is a question by the Hon Christopher Chung Shu-kun and a reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (July 10):
Question:
Regarding the arrangements for the provision of medical records to patients by the public hospitals under the Hospital Authority (HA), will the Government inform this Council:
(a) given that patients of public hospitals or their families are required to pay for access to medical records or the copies of medical records they apply for, but the hospitals provide the records in English only, and patients have to arrange for translation at their own cost if they need to have the records in Chinese, thus having to pay additional fees, whether the Government has assessed if such an arrangement has undermined patients' right to information and discriminated against patients who are illiterate in English; whether it knows the difficulties of HA in providing medical records in Chinese at patients' requests;
(b) given that according to the Official Languages Ordinance, the Chinese and English languages are the official languages of Hong Kong which possess equal status, but in reply to my enquiry, Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital (the Hospital) under HA indicated that patients' medical records were all written in English, and the Hospital was unable to provide the service of translating those records into Chinese, it could however provide a list of translation service agencies to facilitate patients' arrangement for the translation of the medical records into Chinese, yet the English version of all the treatment records issued by the Hospital should prevail, whether the Government knows the justifications for the English version of treatment records to prevail; since the relevant Chinese translation is prepared by a translation service agency on the list provided by the Hospital, why the Chinese version still does not have the same effect as the English version; whether it has assessed if the practice of the Hospital has discriminated against the legal status of the Chinese language; and
(c) whether it knows if HA has plans at present to use Chinese comprehensively in the documents prepared by it and the public hospitals, as well as in recording the treatment methods, names of diseases and names of drugs, etc.; if HA has, of the progress; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Regarding the Member's question on provision of medical records for patients by public hospitals under the Hospital Authority (HA), my reply is as follows:
(a) to (c) English is currently the language most commonly used in the practice of western medicine around the world. For healthcare personnel trained in western medicine in Hong Kong, English is their medium of learning and hence predominantly the language used by them in writing clinical records. Medical records are kept primarily to record and report patients' medical conditions, and facilitate communication among healthcare professionals so that the most appropriate treatment and follow-up services can be rendered to the patients. Given the medical terminologies involved, it is more desirable in terms of accuracy for such records to be made in English.
Both English and Chinese are the official languages of Hong Kong and the two possess equal status under the Official Languages Ordinance. Keeping medical records in English is in full compliance with the provision. Any patient who needs to know his medical conditions may approach the healthcare personnel concerned, who should be ready to explain in detail the relevant diagnostic results, development of his case, treatment procedures, etc. As such, the right to know is as well safeguarded for patients not proficient in English as for other patients. There is no discrimination against patients who do not know English.
The HA has an established mechanism through which patients may access personal data and request for duplicates of records. Patients who need duplicates of their medical records may apply to the relevant hospitals. Duplicates of the documents requested will be produced from the patients' records available in the hospital archive. The original patient/medical records are mainly in English as they were written on the spot by healthcare personnel when the medical service was provided. Chinese translations of the English medical records produced by translation agencies are for reference only. In this connection, the list of translation agencies provided by hospitals is also for patients' reference only. For better understanding of the content of the medical records, patients may approach the healthcare personnel concerned.
Generally speaking, all HA notices and notifications to patients are now issued in both English and Chinese. However, given that English is the medium of learning for local healthcare personnel and there is a need to ensure the accuracy of patient/medical records written on the spot at the time the medical service is provided, the HA presently has no plan to switch the language used in medical records from English to Chinese.
Ends/Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Issued at HKT 14:49
NNNN
