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Following is a question by the Hon Alice Mak and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (October 9):
Question:
Given comments that the management of the Hospital Authority (HA) is plagued with problems, including "fattening the top and thinning the bottom" in the management, the lack of co-ordination among hospital clusters, the uneven distribution of resources among the various clusters and the excessively long waiting time for patients, etc., coupled with the challenges arising from ageing population, the Food and Health Bureau has earlier established the Hospital Authority Review Steering Committee (Steering Committee). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the approach of the review; who will be responsible for monitoring the review process; how the public may participate in the review;
(b) of the review timetable, including the estimated dates of completion and release of the report;
(c) as there are criticisms that the Steering Committee lacks representatives from frontline healthcare personnel and patients' rights groups, whether the authorities will adopt any measure to enhance the representation of the Steering Committee, such as making additional appointments of various stakeholders as its members; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(d) of the scope of the review, and whether it will include the issue of uneven distribution of resources among the hospital clusters; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; whether any priority area for review has been set; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(e) as some healthcare practitioners have relayed to me that the authorities have all along lacked an effective mechanism to regularly review the operation of HA, resulting in HA being plagued with problems, whether the authorities will consider establishing such a mechanism; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My reply to various parts of the Hon Alice Mak Mei-kuen's question is set out below:
(a), (c) and (e) The Government has all along attached importance to the work of the Hospital Authority (HA) and has been monitoring and reviewing its operation with a view to ensuring that HA provides quality public healthcare services for the community.
HA is an independent statutory body established under Cap. 113 of the Laws of Hong Kong. The relevant legislation includes provisions specifying that HA should use the resources efficiently to provide hospital services of high quality.
To ensure accountability to the public for the management and control of the public medical services system, three Government officials (namely the Permanent Secretary for Food and Health (Health), the Director of Health, and the Deputy Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury) are ex-officio members of the HA Board and participate in the governance of HA. The Secretary for Food and Health holds monthly meeting with the HA management to monitor its work. Moreover, the Government sets out HA's performance targets in the Controlling Officer's Report under a Head of the Estimates every year. These performance targets cover various aspects, including access to services (such as waiting time), delivery of services, quality of services, cost of services and manpower, etc. HA Board and the Government, through regular reports submitted by HA, assess and examine HA's performance in accordance with these targets.
Since its establishment over 20 years ago, HA has been providing quality healthcare services with international acclaim. In view of the ageing population and the changing public needs for healthcare services, we set up the Hospital Authority Review Steering Committee (the Steering Committee) in August 2013 to conduct a comprehensive review of the operation of HA.
Chaired by the Secretary for Food and Health, the Steering Committee comprises non-official members, official members and HA representatives. Non-official members of the Steering Committee comprise individuals from a wide range of backgrounds and interests, including doctors, nurses, academics, frontline staff of HA, as well as representatives from the business and the welfare sectors and patient groups.
To enable more comprehensive consideration of the views of frontline staff and hospitals of different sizes, the Government announced on September 19, 2013 the appointment of a frontline doctor and a frontline nurse from HA as additional members of the Steering Committee.
In addition to having a diversified composition with different stakeholders, the Steering Committee will, during the course of the review, collect and listen to views in the community through different channels such as focus group discussions and consultation forums as well as meetings with concerned organisations in the field.
(b) and (d) As regards the scope of review, the Steering Committee held its first meeting in late September and agreed that HA's management and cluster arrangement, resources management, human resources management, service levels and overall cost effectiveness will be fully examined. The aim of the review is to improve the operation of HA so that, as the cornerstone of the public healthcare system and the safety net for the public, it can continue to provide quality services and meet the challenges brought about by social development and ageing population more effectively.
Depending on the actual progress of work, we envisage that the review could be completed in about one year.
Ends/Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Issued at HKT 15:16
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