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Following is a question by the Hon Alan Leong and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (November 27):
Question:
In reply to my question on July 10 this year concerning chronic obstructive pulmonary (COP) disease, the Secretary for Food and Health indicated that since 2011-2012, the Government had provided additional recurrent funding of $44 million for the Hospital Authority (HA) to expand the clinical application of long-acting bronchodilators for treatment of COP disease. Yet, some members of the public have relayed to me that only those receiving treatments at the specialist out-patient (SOP) clinics under the Respiratory Medicine Division (RMD) had been prescribed with that drug, whilst those receiving treatments at the general out-patient (GOP) clinics and the out-patient clinics under the General Medicine Division (GMD) had not benefitted from the measure. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) the criteria adopted by HA for referring patients diagnosed to be suffering from COP disease (COP patients) to the SOP clinics under RMD;
(b) the respective numbers of COP patients at the SOP clinics under RMD in various hospital clusters at present;
(c) if HA has collected data on COP patients at GOP clinics; if HA has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(d) the respective amounts out of the aforesaid funding currently allocated by HA to the SOP clinics under RMD, GOP clinics and the out-patient clinics under GMD?
Reply:
President,
Since 2011-12, the Government has provided additional recurrent funding of $44 million for the Hospital Authority (HA) to expand the scope of the clinical application of long-acting bronchodilators. About 7 500 patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary (COP) disease benefit from the measure each year. HA will prescribe appropriate medication and provide appropriate treatment for patients according to their clinical conditions. The long-acting bronchodilators mentioned in the question is a special drug in the Drug Formulary and is usually prescribed by respiratory medicine specialists.
My reply to the various parts of the question is as follows:
(a) HA will, having regard to a patient's clinical conditions, including clinical history and major signs and symptoms, smoking habit, chest X-ray film and pulmonary function, make an integrated diagnosis and provide follow-up treatment as appropriate. In general, COP patients in stable condition and without the need for frequent in-patient treatment will be followed up by general out-patient (GOP) clinics, while those in more critical condition and with the need for frequent in-patient treatment will be followed up by specialist out-patient (SOP) clinics.
(b) The SOP clinics of the Medicine Division under HA provided services for around 627 000 patients in 2012-13. As HA does not assign codes to SOP patients by disease type, statistics on COP patients receiving treatment at SOP clinics are not available.
(c) The GOP clinics under HA provided services for around 14 500 COP patients in 2012-13.
(d) As mentioned in the above paragraphs, HA will make assessment and diagnosis according to the clinical needs of individual patients at different stages and refer them to the appropriate SOP and GOP clinics for follow-up treatment. HA does not compile statistics on medical consultations and referral cases and the related resources deployment at SOP and GOP clinics, hence a breakdown of the respective funding is not available.
Ends/Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Issued at HKT 15:58
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