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Following is a question by the Hon Chung Kwok-pan and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, in the Legislative Council today (December 16):
Question:
Recently, a member of the public has complained to me that the operation he underwent at Yan Chai Hospital under the Hospital Authority (HA) a few years ago had adverse effects and he subsequently lodged complaints repeatedly with HA, but to no avail. He also said that he received a written reply only or even no reply after each complaint, and no healthcare personnel had ever explained to him face-to-face. As a result, both he and his family members experienced emotional distress. Regarding the handling of complaints by HA, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it knows the number of complaints received by HA from patients and the number of cases in which the complainants appealed to HA's Public Complaints Committee (PCC) against the outcome of the handling of their complaints, in each of the past three years, with a breakdown by the public hospital concerned and content of the complaint; whether there was an upward trend for such numbers of complaints in the past three years; if so, whether HA has looked into the reasons for that, and whether HA will review the quality of healthcare services provided by public hospitals;
(2) given that at present, the target response time for complaints by public hospitals is within six weeks (for complex cases, within three months), while that by PCC is within three to six months, whether it knows the respective average and longest time taken by public hospitals and PCC to respond to complaints in each of the past three years; of the reasons why some cases took longer time to respond; whether HA will take measures to shorten the response time for complaints;
(3) whether it has reviewed its publicity for the existing channels available for lodging complaints about services provided by public hospitals; whether it will step up such publicity, and provide more complaint channels; and
(4) whether it knows if HA will review the procedure for PCC to handle complaints and improve HA's approach for communicating with complainants, including handling complaints in a more humane manner, e.g. in addition to giving a simple written reply to the complainant, arranging a doctor to meet with the complainant to explain the situation relating to the complaint, so as to avoid the complainant experiencing emotional distress due to the feeling that his complaint has not been seriously handled; if HA will review, of the details; if HA will not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
The Hospital Authority (HA) has a two-tier system to handle complaints from patients and the public. The first tier is at the hospital level which is responsible for handling all complaints lodged for the first time. If the complainants are not satisfied with the outcome of the complaint, they may appeal to the second tier, that is the Public Complaints Committee (PCC) of HA. PCC is established under the HA Board responsible for independently considering and deciding on all appeal cases and putting forward recommendations on service improvement to HA. Members of PCC are not employees of HA and, by virtue of their independent status, will handle all complaints fairly and impartially.
My reply to various parts of the question raised by the Hon Chung Kwok-pan is as follows:
(1) There were 2 528, 2 644 and 2 394 complaints handled by public hospitals in 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15 respectively. Annex 1 sets out the breakdown of complaints by cluster and category.
PCC handled 219, 289 and 281 appeal cases in 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15 respectively. The following table sets out the breakdown of the cases by category:
2012/13 2013/14 2014/15
------- ------- -------
Medical services 149 206 206
Staff attitude 32 38 28
Administrative matters 28 33 39
Others 10 12 8
Total 219 289 281
Overall speaking, the number of cases (including complaints and appeals) handled by HA over the past three years was generally stable. In the course of complaint handling, if there are areas for improvement identified in the service delivery or healthcare system, HA will take appropriate follow-up actions to ensure service quality.
(2) HA sets a target response time in complaint handling so as to give complainants an idea of the approximate processing time for their complaints. The hospital and PCC will, upon receipt of the complaint cases, handle them as soon as possible. The hospital and PCC will also keep the complainants informed of the progress through interim replies at regular intervals.
The target response time for the first tier of the complaint handling system is six weeks, and that for complex cases is three months. HA does not maintain statistics regarding the average time and longest time taken by hospitals to respond to patient complaints.
The PCC's target response time is three to six months, with complex cases possibly taking longer time. Annex 2 sets out the time taken by PCC in handling appeal cases in the past three years.
The appeal cases handled by PCC vary in complexity. Complex cases take longer time to process and the average processing time is about five months. The three appeal cases with the longest processing time as shown in Annex 2 are very complex. To ensure that the decisions made were fair and impartial, PCC had to conduct in-depth investigation, including inviting medical experts of different specialities to provide professional views on clinical care, or conducting multiple clarifications or evidence collection.
(3) HA promotes its two-tier complaint handling system to the public through a number of channels including publishing pamphlets, uploading relevant information to its website, meeting patient groups on a regular basis, reporting annually the work progress to the HA Board, setting up an enquiry hotline, and displaying posters in public hospitals to introduce the channels for lodging complaints with and providing feedback to Patient Relations Officers. The public at present can already lodge complaints with HA through multiple channels, including by letters, emails, faxes, telephone calls and in-person meeting the relevant staff.
(4) In the course of complaint handling, the hospital will proactively follow up on the cases having regard to multiple factors like the nature of the complaints, the circumstances of the cases as well as the request of the complainant. Apart from giving response to the complainants, the hospital will also make arrangements for the complainants/patients concerned to meet the doctors where necessary so as to provide the appropriate assistance.
As a matter of fact, it is a routine practice for hospitals to arrange meetings of medical professionals with patients (or/and their family members) where necessary to explain to them their medical conditions and treatment plan, irrespective of whether the patients have lodged any complaint. If the patients or complainants are found to be emotionally disturbed, the hospital will, with the patient's consent, arrange appropriate referral in accordance with their clinical conditions, including recommending follow-up in relevant specialities or psychological counselling service.
Ends/Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Issued at HKT 18:25
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