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Following is a question by the Dr Hon Elizabeth Quat and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (March 25):
Question:
Quite a number of users of the General Outpatient Clinics Telephone Appointment Service (TAS) of the Hospital Authority (HA) have relayed to me that they hope HA will enhance TAS. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
(1) as some elderly users of TAS have said that the procedure for making telephone appointments is too complicated, whether HA will simplify such procedure; if HA will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(2) as quite a number of elderly people have expressed that they do not know how to use TAS, whether HA will allocate additional resources for teaching the elderly people how to use TAS; if HA will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(3) as some users have relayed that TAS does not offer an option of answering their calls by a real person, which makes it difficult for them to enquire about the details of the out-patient services, whether HA will consider afresh adding the option to TAS; if HA will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(4) as some users have relayed that the existing TAS does not provide any information on the remaining consultation quotas of various clinics, whether HA will consider providing such information in TAS; if HA will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the question raised by the Dr Hon Elizabeth Quat is as follows:
(1) General out-patient services provided by the Hospital Authority (HA) are primarily targeted at serving the elderly, the low-income group and the chronically ill. Patients under the care of general out-patient clinics (GOPCs) comprise two major categories: chronic disease patients with stable medical conditions, such as patients with diabetes mellitus or hypertension; and episodic disease patients with relatively mild symptoms, such as those suffering from influenza, cold, gastroenteritis, etc. For those with episodic diseases, consultation timeslots at GOPCs in the next 24 hours are available for booking through HA's telephone appointment system. As for chronic disease patients requiring follow-up consultations, they will be assigned a visit timeslot after each consultation and do not need to make separate appointment by phone.
HA's telephone appointment system operates round-the-clock and allows episodic disease patients to book consultation timeslots at GOPCs in the next 24 hours. The telephone appointment system forms a network which allows consultation quotas of the GOPCs nearby to be linked and pooled together for use. When a particular clinic has run out of consultation timeslots, the system will automatically search for available quotas in nearby clinics. Moreover, to enhance the accessibility of GOPC services to elderly patients, HA has introduced and reserved some Elderly Appointment Quotas for patients aged 65 or above.
Taking into consideration the feedback from the public, HA has introduced a number of measures to improve the operation of the system. These include: increasing the number of telephone lines from 350 to over 600; extending the response time to allow sufficient time for users (in particular the elders) to input data; replacing computerised voice with authentic human voice to make it easier for users to hear; simplifying data entry procedures to make the system more user-friendly for elders; and providing an SMS booking service for those with hearing impairment. HA has further simplified the procedure of telephone booking since early 2013. Currently, when users are connected to the telephone appointment system, the system will automatically search for available quotas in the next 24 hours in the called clinic and its nearby clinics. If that particular clinic and nearby clinics have run out of consultation quotas, the system will inform the callers right away without the need to enter personal information. This prevents situations where callers are informed of no available quota after entering their personal information.
(2) and (3) To enhance patients' understanding of (especially our target patients such as the elders) the operation of the GOPC telephone appointment system, HA has produced educational video clips and pamphlets for broadcasting and distribution at GOPCs. These resources are also uploaded to the HA's website. Meanwhile, help desks have been set up in GOPCs to assist those who may encounter difficulties in using the telephone appointment service.
The automated telephone appointment system allows consultation quotas of GOPCs nearby to be linked and pooled together for use and enables the search and allocation of available consultation quotas for the patients within the shortest time possible. The system copes with the large volume of GOPC services and thereby achieving effective utilisation of resources. Also, patients do not have to commute between clinics in search of consultation opportunities. If manually operated telephone appointment service is to be provided, this would involve additional recurrent expenditure and would exert pressure on financial resources and manpower.
(4) At present, the telephone appointment system would identify the earliest available consultation session, and allocate consultation timeslot on a sequential basis to optimise the use of resources, avoid wastage of quotas and shorten the occupancy time of booking appointment. If the callers do not accept the offered timeslot, they may choose to search for available quotas in other sessions within the next 24 hours, such as morning, afternoon and evening. Besides, HA also provides "GOPC unused quota report on average for the preceding four weeks" through the HA website, giving patients an understanding of the quota usage among different districts in the past four weeks as a reference for choosing the suitable consultation sessions.
HA would monitor the effectiveness of various measures of improving GOPC services closely, continue to collect the suggestions and feedback from the public and different parties, and consider all kinds of feasible improvement measures.
Ends/Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Issued at HKT 14:21
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