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Following is the speech by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, at the Asia Pacific Regional Conference on End-of-life and Palliative Care in Long Term Care Settings today (September 26):
Lieutenant-Colonel Ian Swan (Officer Commanding, The Salvation Army Hong Kong and Macau Command), Edward (Dr Edward Leung Man-fuk, President, Hong Kong Association of Gerontology), CH (Dr Edward Leong Che-hung, Chairman, Advisory Committee of the Palliative Care in Residential Care Homes for the Elderly), Anthony (Mr Anthony Wu Ting-yuk, Chairman, Hospital Authority), Adrian (Mr Adrian Li Man-kiu, Deputy Chief Executive, Bank of East Asia), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
It is my great pleasure to join you today at the opening ceremony of the Asia Pacific Regional Conference on End-of-life and Palliative Care in Long Term Care Settings. I would like to begin by congratulating the Salvation Army and the Hong Kong Association of Gerontology on their successful efforts in bringing together so many distinguished academics and experts, local and overseas, to this important event. My thanks also go to the "la Caixa" Foundation and Bank of East Asia Charitable Foundation for supporting this conference and making palliative care a flagship project. To our guests and participants from afar, let me extend a very warm welcome to Hong Kong.
Like many other economies, Hong Kong is facing the challenges of an ageing population. Between now and 2041, the proportion of elderly citizens (defined as those aged 65 and above) in our overall population will increase from about one in seven to one in three. Better nutrition, more sophisticated healthcare support and technological advancements have enabled us to live longer. On average, men and women in Hong Kong today are expected to live up to 81 years and 86 years respectively.
One of the main challenges we are facing is how to make our senior citizens not only live longer, but live with dignity and security. To this end, we attach much importance to enhancing care and support services for our elderly generation. For the frail elderly with long-term care needs, we are providing a wide spectrum of subsidised community care and residential care services. Government recurrent expenditure on elderly care services in the welfare sector in 2013-14 is estimated at $5.58 billion, 12 per cent up on last year's figure. If health services and social security cash payments for the elderly are included, the amount will rise to $55 billion, representing a significant 18.9 per cent of total Government recurrent expenditure in this financial year.
"Ageing in place" is the cherished wish of most of our elderly citizens. However, owing to their increasing frailty or other reasons, some elderly have to move into residential care homes. We have set two clear objectives on the provision of residential care services. The first objective is to increase the provision of quality subsidised residential care places by taking a multi-pronged approach. In the next three years, we will provide a total of 1 200 new subsidised places. We have also earmarked eight development projects for providing new elderly homes.
Our second objective is to enable our senior citizens to stay in the same residential care home even when their health deteriorates. To this end, we have adopted an integrated approach by launching a programme to convert 75 subvented elderly homes to provide a continuum of care. In this financial year, we have allocated additional funding of $164 million to increase the subvention for 7 000 residential care places with a continuum of care elements, and to upgrade another 7 850 places to provide a continuum of care.
Given the higher life expectancy of our population, there should be a greater emphasis on care services for our elderly who are suffering from terminal illnesses. In this respect, I commend the Salvation Army and the Hong Kong Association of Gerontology for pioneering the Pilot Project of "Palliative Care in Residential Care Homes for the Elderly".
Under the Pilot Project, six palliative care rooms are provided in different elderly homes in Hong Kong. Through co-ordinated multi-disciplinary support for the elderly and their family members, the Pilot Project helps relieve the pain of the elderly and preserve their dignity during the final phase of their life journey. It also eases the stress of the family members and helps them to cope with the trauma of losing their loved ones.
The Pilot Project not only tests a model of palliative care in the local context, but also sheds useful light on how we can further promote the well-being of our elderly citizens in all aspects of their life. In fact, the provision of palliative and end-of-life care in elderly services is consonant with our policy objectives in promoting a sense of belonging, a sense of security and a sense of worthiness among our senior citizens.
This high-powered regional event has provided us with a valuable platform for the sharing of experiences, practices and strategies on the provision of palliative care and end-of-life care in different economies. I wish you all a fruitful conference. I also wish all overseas delegates a pleasant stay in this vibrant city.
Ends/Thursday, September 26, 2013
Issued at HKT 11:03
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