LCQ21: Medical and dental benefits for civil servants and eligible persons
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     Following is a question by the Hon Chan Han-pan and a written reply by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Clement Cheung, in the Legislative Council today (February 8):

Question:

     At present, civil servants and eligible persons (CSEPs) are entitled to free medical and dental services provided by the Hospital Authority (HA) or the Department of Health (DH). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of (i) the respective numbers of attendances of CSEPs for the various medical and dental services under HA and DH, as well as (ii) the respective public expenditure incurred for providing such services, in each of the past five years (set out the information in Table 1);

Table 1
Medical and dental services 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
(i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii)
General outpatient clinic services                    
Specialist outpatient clinic services                    
Accident and emergency services                    
Inpatient services                    
Families clinic services                    
Dental services                    
Others                    
Total:                    

(2) of the total expenses, which were reimbursed to CSEPs in each of the past five years, for purchasing items from HA or outside required for medical treatment;

(3) whether it knows the total daily number of discs issued by the general outpatient clinics under HA and, among them, the number of priority discs reserved for serving civil servants (priority disc); the annual average usage rate of priority discs in the past five years;

(4) of the annual (i) consultation quota of and (ii) patient attendance at each of the five families clinics under DH in the past five years (set out the information in Table 2); whether the authorities will consider reallocating the unused quotas for use by the general public; if they will, of the specific arrangements; if not, the reasons for that;

Table 2
Name of
families clinic
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
(i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii)
1. Chai Wan Families Clinic                    
                   
Total:                    

(5) of the annual (i) consultation quota of and (ii) attendance at each of the 40 dental clinics under DH in the past five years (set out the information in Table 3); whether the authorities will consider reallocating the unused quotas for use by the general public; if they will, of the specific arrangements; if not, the reasons for that; and

Table 3
Name of dental clinic 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
(i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii) (i) (ii)
1. Aberdeen Jockey Club Dental Clinic                    
                   
Total:                    

(6) given that, among the dental clinics mentioned in (5), 11 clinics also provide dental general public sessions (GP sessions) for use by the public, of the respective daily consultation quotas for (i) CSEPs and (ii) GP sessions, as well as (iii) the ratio of these two types of quotas at present for each of those clinics (set out the information in Table 4)?

Table 4
Name of dental clinic with GP Sessions Consultation quotas
(i) (ii) (iii)
1. Kennedy Town Community Complex Dental Clinic      
     
Total:      

Reply:

President,

     As an employer, the Government has an obligation to provide medical and dental benefits to civil servants under their employment contracts. At present, around 540 000 serving civil servants, pensioners and their eligible dependants (civil service eligible persons (CSEPs)) are entitled to such benefits. 
 
     Our reply to the different parts of the question is as follows:

(1) At present, the Department of Health (DH) is providing services to CSEPs through five Families Clinics and 40 Government Dental Clinics. The attendances and actual expenditures of these clinics in the past five years are set out in the table below:
 
  2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Attend
ances ^
Expen
diture #
($m)
Attend
ances ^
Expen
diture #
($m)
Attend
ances ^
Expen
diture #
($m)
Attend
ances ^
Expen
diture #
($m)
Attend
ances ^
Expen
diture #
($m)
Families Clinics 228 000 76.3 229 000 85.4 247 000 98.6 253 000 102.2 273 000 124.8
Govt Dental Clinics 569 000 437.0 600 000 453.1 656 000 484.7 687 000 547.5 708 000 597.5
Total: 797 000 513.3 829 000 538.5 903 000 583.3 940 000 649.7 981 000 722.3
^The number of attendances is rounded to the nearest thousand
#The expenditures are calculated for the financial year ending 31 March of the year
 
     Statistics on the utilisation of Hospital Authority’s (HA) general out-patient (GOP), specialist out-patient (SOP), accident and emergency (A&E) and inpatient services by CSEPs in the past five years are set out in the table below:
 
  2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16
GOP services attendances^ 722 000 752 000 771 000 776 000 796 000
SOP services attendances^ 1 026 000 1 053 000 1 084 000 1 109 000 1 131 000
A&E attendances^ 149 000 147 000 143 000 138 000 139 000
Inpatient bed days occupied^ 344 000 358 000 381 000 383 000 393 000
^The number of attendances and the number of days occupied are rounded to the nearest thousand

     The annual subvention provided by the Government to HA has basically included the resources required for the provision of medical benefits to CSEPs. The expenditures calculated on the basis of attendances by CSEPs using HA services and the average unit cost of service provision in the past five years are set out in the table below:
 
 
 
2011-12
($million)
2012-13
($million)
2013-14
($million)
2014-15
($million)
2015-16
($million)
GOP services 210 236 262 283 313
SOP services 1,047 1,155 1,225 1,319 1,400
A&E services 128 138 150 156 169
Inpatient services 1,501 1,659 1,827 2,015 2,191
Other services 86 93 105 108 118
Total: 2,972 3,281 3,568 3,881 4,191

(2) For drugs, equipment and services that are prescribed by the attending HA/DH doctors according to medical necessity but are not available in HA/DH, CSEPs may apply to DH for reimbursement of the expenses incurred. For drugs on HA’s list of self-financed items and some specified self-financed equipment/services that are available in HA as chargeable items, CSEPs may also apply to DH for direct payment of the expenses incurred to HA. The expenditures in this regard in the past five years are set out in the table below:
 
2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16
$289.9
million
$303.6
million
$351.8
million
$400.3
million
$410.0
million

(3) In 2015-16, the 73 GOP clinics (GOPCs) under HA provided services for nearly six million attendances. Some of these GOPCs provided around 550 000 priority discs (i.e. a daily quota of around 2 000) in that year to serving civil servants during day sessions except on Sundays or public holidays. The purpose of the arrangement is to enable colleagues to return to work as soon as possible after having received proper treatment. For the past five years, the utilisation rate of the priority discs was around 60%, and any unused timeslots were released to members of the public on the same day.

(4) Each consultation room of a Family Clinic can provide services for about 8 000 attendances a year, and the overall utilisation rate is as high as 99%, leaving us no room to release any quota for use by the public. The attendances of CSEPs at each Families Clinic in the past five years are set out in the table below:
 
  2012^ 2013^ 2014^ 2015^ 2016^
Chai Wan Families Clinic 64 000 62 000 63 000 64 000 66 000
Hong Kong Families Clinic 69 000 64 000 67 000 68 000 68 000
Kowloon Families Clinic 60 000 62 000 69 000 75 000 73 000
New Territories Families Clinic 35 000 41 000 48 000 46 000 50 000
Fanling Families Clinic NA NA NA NA 16 000*
Total: 228 000 229 000 247 000 253 000 273 000
^The number of attendances is rounded to the nearest thousand
*Fanling Families Clinic commenced service on 30 March 2016

(5) The Government Dental Clinics offer appointments of three durations (namely 15 minute-interval, 30 minute-interval and 45 minute-interval). As the nature and complexity of the treatment of individual cases vary, there is no fixed consultation capacity for the Government Dental Clinics. As the overall utilisation rate of all the Government Dental Clinics is close to 100%, there is no room to release any quota for use by the public. The attendances of CSEPs at each dental clinic in the past five years are set out in the table below:
 
  2012^ 2013^ 2014^ 2015^ 2016^
Aberdeen Jockey Club Dental Clinic 10 000 9 000 10 000 10 000 10 000
Harbour Building Orthodontic Clinic 9 000 12 000 16 000 16 000 16 000
Harbour Building Dental Clinic 20 000 26 000 29 000 29 000 28 000
Chai Wan Government Dental Clinic 20 000 19 000 20 000 20 000 21 000
Kennedy Town Community Complex Dental Clinic 19 000 19 000 19 000 21 000 20 000
MacLehose Dental Clinic 2/F 12 000 12 000 11 000 11 000 11 000
MacLehose Dental Clinic 6/F 37 000 36 000 37 000 36 000 36 000
Hong Kong Police College Dental Clinic 2 000 2 000 2 000 2 000 2 000
Queensway Government Offices Dental Clinic 30 000 30 000 30 000 31 000 31 000
Sai Ying Pun Dental Clinic 3/F 3 000 4 000 4 000 4 000 6 000
Sai Ying Pun Dental Clinic 8/F - 4 000 6 000 9 000 11 000
Tang Shiu Kin Dental Clinic 15 000 16 000 19 000 22 000 24 000
Victoria Road Dental Clinic 2 000 2 000 2 000 3 000 3 000
Wan Chai Dental Clinic 40 000 40 000 40 000 38 000 38 000
Western Dental Clinic 4 000 4 000 4 000 4 000 5 000
Cheung Sha Wan Government Offices Dental Clinic 68 000 68 000 72 000 74 000 73 000
Kowloon City Dental Clinic - 9 000 29 000 39 000 40 000
Kwun Tong Dental Clinic 10 000 9 000 7 000 11 000 14 000
Kwun Tong Yung Fung Shee Dental Clinic - 5 000 13 000 16 000 17 000
Li Po Chun Dental Clinic 15 000 16 000 17 000 17 000 17 000
Yau Ma Tei Dental Clinic 33 000 34 000 34 000 38 000 38 000
Yau Ma Tei Orthodontic Clinic 24 000 19 000 23 000 25 000 29 000
Castle Peak Hospital Dental Clinic 10 000 11 000 12 000 11 000 12 000
Cheung Chau Dental Clinic 1 000 1 000 1 000 1 000 1 000
Fanling Health Centre Dental Clinic 26 000 27 000 28 000 27 000 26 000
Ha Kwai Chung Government Dental Clinic 13 000 14 000 14 000 14 000 14 000
Kwai Chung Hospital Dental Clinic 3 000 3 000 3 000 3 000 3 000
Ma On Shan Dental Clinic 12 000 14 000 14 000 14 000 14 000
Madam Yung Fung Shee Dental Clinic 14 000 14 000 15 000 15 000 16 000
Mona Fong Dental Clinic 4 000 4 000 4 000 4 000 4 000
Pamela Youde Government Dental Clinic 22 000 22 000 25 000 26 000 26 000
Sheung Kwai Chung Government Dental Clinic - - - 6 000 20 000
Tai O Dental Clinic <1 000 <1 000 <1 000 <1 000 <1 000
Tai Po Wong Siu Ching Dental Clinic 15 000 15 000 16 000 16 000 16 000
Tseung Kwan O Dental Clinic 18 000 21 000 23 000 22 000 24 000
Tsuen Wan Dental Clinic 14 000 14 000 13 000 9 000 -
Tsuen Wan Government Offices Dental Clinic 17 000 18 000 16 000 18 000 17 000
Tung Chung Dental Clinic 8 000 8 000 9 000 8 000 8 000
Yan Oi Dental Clinic 9 000 10 000 10 000 9 000 9 000
Yuen Long Jockey Club Dental Clinic 10 000 9 000 9 000 8 000 8 000
Total: 569 000 600 000 656 000 687 000 708 000
^The number of attendances is rounded to the nearest thousand except those specified as <1 000

(6) DH also provides free emergency dental treatments to the public through designated sessions in 11 Government Dental Clinics. The scope of service of these sessions covers treatment of acute dental diseases, prescription for pain relief, treatment of oral abscess and teeth extraction. Details are set out at Annex.

Ends/Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Issued at HKT 17:05

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