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Following is a question by the Hon Wong Kwok-kin and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, in the Legislative Council today (February 11):
Question:
At present, the population of the Wong Tai Sin (WTS) district is about 420 000, the second highest among the five District Council (DC) districts in Kowloon. Among that population, 16.7% are people aged 65 or above, and this percentage is the highest among the 18 DC districts. Some WTS residents have relayed to me that residents in the district who need to use accident and emergency (A&E) services of public hospitals have to seek medical treatment in other districts. Such a situation causes inconvenience to the elderly and may cause delays in the treatment for patients. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
(1) the attendance of WTS residents using the A&E services of public hospitals in other districts in each of the past five years, with a breakdown by hospital cluster and hospital;
(2) the average waiting time for the A&E services of the three hospital clusters of Kowloon in the past five years, with a breakdown by hospital cluster and hospital;
(3) the average, shortest and longest time taken from WTS residents' calling for emergency ambulance service to their arrival at the hospital in the past five years, and how such figures compare with the relevant figures territory-wide;
(4) given that the Kai Tak Hospital under planning will provide A&E services to WTS residents, but the authorities have anticipated that the first phase of the construction works of the hospital will not be completed until 2021, whether the Hospital Authority (HA) will improve the A&E services for WTS residents before 2021, including whether HA will consider afresh providing A&E services in Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital; if HA will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(5) whether HA has planned to rationalise the areas covered by various hospital clusters upon the commissioning of the Kai Tak Hospital; if HA has, of the details, and how such plan will affect the A&E services for WTS residents; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
We understand the concern of Wong Tai Sin residents on the provision of accident and emergency (A&E) service for the district jointly by the acute hospitals of several hospital clusters. The planning of the Hospital Authority (HA) for healthcare services and facilities is based on the service supply and demand in a cluster as a whole, taking into account the roles and long-term development directions of the hospitals in the cluster, and the co-ordination of their services and facilities. This is to ensure that the hospitals within the cluster will complement each other by performing their respective roles and provide the most appropriate healthcare services for the communities they serve. At present, the A&E service of Wong Tai Sin is jointly provided by Kwong Wah Hospital in the Kowloon West Cluster, Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the Kowloon Central Cluster and United Christian Hospital in the Kowloon East Cluster. With the support of these three acute hospitals, the demand for A&E service in the district has been appropriately met in general.
My reply to the various parts of the question is as follows:
(1) Generally speaking, HA encourages patients to seek medical treatment from hospitals in the cluster to which their residence district belong so as to facilitate follow-up treatment for chronic illnesses/conditions and the provision of community support. Nevertheless, under emergency circumstances, a patient may be taken to an acute hospital near the scene of the incident instead of one near his/her place of residence.
The statistics of A&E attendance of Wong Tai Sin residents in various clusters under HA in the past five years are shown in Annex 1.
(2) HA adopts a triage system which classifies patients attending the A&E departments according to their clinical conditions so as to ensure that patients with more serious conditions are accorded higher priority in medical treatment.
The average waiting time for A&E patients of different triaged categories in the three Kowloon clusters (i.e. Kowloon Central, Kowloon East and Kowloon West clusters) for the past five years is listed in Annex 2.
(3) On emergency ambulance services, the performance pledge of the Fire Services Department (FSD) is to respond to emergency ambulance calls within 12 minutes from the time of call to the arrival on scene, and it is FSD's target to meet this response time in 92.5 per cent of emergency calls. The average time from calling for emergency ambulance services to arriving at the hospital for Hong Kong as a whole and that for Wong Tai Sin District over the past three years (Note) is listed in Annex 3.
The time required from calling for emergency ambulance services to arriving at the hospital is affected by various factors, such as the circumstances at the scene of the incident, the weather and traffic at the time of the incident, the distance between the scene of the incident and the ambulance depot as well as the hospital, and the level of injuries/illness of the casualties/patients.
(4) A number of related facilities are required in setting up an A&E department in order to ensure its efficient operation. These include diagnostic radiographic systems such as those for computerised tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, operating theatres, an intensive care unit, clinical laboratory service, a theatre sterile supplies department and a central sterile supplies unit. The existing facilities in Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital (OLMH) are not up to the standard of those for an acute hospital. Constrained by the area and topographical environment, OLMH does not have enough space to install new facilities or upgrade existing facilities to achieve the standard compatible to a modern acute hospital. Therefore, after thorough consideration, HA considers that it is inappropriate for OLMH to provide A&E service.
Nevertheless, we recognise that OLMH, having been built years ago, has limitations in its facilities and supporting services and hence has a need for redevelopment. HA is actively reviewing the overall demand for and supply of services in the three Kowloon clusters and formulating service plans afresh to meet the healthcare needs of Kowloon in the long run. As part of the review, the evaluation and assessment of the long-term development directions of OLMH have established that OLMH should take the role of a non-acute hospital focusing on the provision of ambulatory healthcare services. HA will plan the redevelopment of OLMH along this line. HA is making reference to the views of stakeholders in updating the detailed content of the OLMH redevelopment plan so as to better address the needs of Wong Tai Sin residents.
(5) We understand that some members of the community have expressed their views on the way Wong Tai Sin is covered in cluster demarcation. Before the commissioning of the Kai Tak Hospital, the Government has already set up the Steering Committee on Review of Hospital Authority chaired by the Secretary for Food and Health to conduct a comprehensive review of the operation of HA. The cluster arrangement and cluster demarcation of HA are covered in the review. We aim to improve the operation of HA through the review so that, as the cornerstone of the public healthcare system and the safety net for the public, HA can continue to provide quality services and meet the challenges brought about by social development and ageing population more effectively. In the process of review, the steering committee noted the public aspirations for reviewing the cluster demarcation of Kowloon and will give due consideration to stakeholders' views (including those of Wong Tai Sin District Council and Wong Tai Sin residents). The review is expected to be completed in the first half of 2015.
Note: Since FSD started keeping data about the time interval between emergency call and arrival at hospital by District Council district in 2012, only figures for the past three years are available.
Ends/Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Issued at HKT 19:33
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