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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 (January 22)
Question:
According to the Government's statistics, there were 91 558 babies born in Hong Kong in 2012, and among them, 4 698 babies were born to mainland women whose spouses were Hong Kong permanent residents (i.e. singly non-permanent resident (SNR) children), and 26 715 babies were born to mainland women whose spouses were not Hong Kong permanent residents (i.e., doubly non-permanent resident (DNR) children). There have been comments that although both SNR and DNR children are eligible to use the child health services provided by the Maternal and Child Health Centres (MCHCs) under the Department of Health, some of them do not use such services probably because they do not reside in Hong Kong. In connection with the services provided to children and women by MCHCs, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the total number of children receiving services provided by MCHCs at present, with a breakdown by age group and the resident status of their parents in Table 1;
Table 1
Age group All children SNR children DNR children
Below 1
1 or above
(2) of the respective numbers of Hong Kong-born children in each of the past five years who continuously used (i) the immunisation services and (ii) the developmental surveillance and diet assessment services of MCHCs, with a breakdown by the resident status of their parents and set out in a table of the same format as Table 2; and
Table 2 Service:______________
Year All children SNR children DNR children
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
(3) of the respective numbers of women who used (i) the antenatal services and (ii) the postnatal checkups and family planning advice services of MCHCs in each of the past five years, with a breakdown by the resident status of their spouses and set out in a table of the same format as Table 3?
Table 3 Service:______________
Year All women SNR women DNR women
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Reply:
President,
It has been the Government's policy to provide public healthcare services to local residents at highly subsidised rates. According to the existing policy, holders of valid Hong Kong Identity Card or children under 11 years of age who are Hong Kong residents are persons who are eligible to use subsidised public healthcare services (i.e. Eligible Persons (EPs)). The Department of Health (DH) has been reviewing the future demand for maternal and child health services in response to relevant factors such as the total number of births and the number of new cases in the past. My reply to the various parts of the question is as follows:
(1) and (2) The Maternal and Child Health Centres (MCHCs) under the DH provide services for eligible children from birth to five years of age. In the past five years, the total numbers of new cases served by the MCHCs involving infants under one year of age, with breakdown by their parents' eligibility status, are set out in Table 1 of the Annex. The number of new cases involving children aged one year old or above is around 6% to 8 % of the total number of new cases received annually. However, the DH has not kept a breakdown on the number of new cases involving children aged one year old or above by the eligibility status of their parents.
Since an infant may receive various types of child health services, such as "health and developmental surveillance" and "immunisation" services, in the same consultation session, the DH does not have a statistical breakdown on the number of consultation by type of services.
(3) In the past five years, the total numbers of attendance respectively for maternal health service and family planning service provided by the MCHCs, with breakdown by the user's eligibility status, are set out in Tables 2 and 3 of the Annex respectively. The maternal health service includes antenatal and postnatal services. Each year, the number of attendance for postnatal service accounts for about 15 % of the total number of attendance for maternal health service.
DH has not kept information on eligibility status of service user's spouse.
Ends/Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Issued at HKT 19:16
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