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Following is a question by Dr the Hon Tang Siu-tong and a written reply by the Secretary for Health and Welfare, Dr E K Yeoh, in the Legislative Council today (May 17):

Question :

Will the Government inform this Council :

(a) of the respective average utilisation rates in each of the past three years in respect of each of the 37 clinics under the Department of Health which had an average utilisation rate reached 92% or above last year; whether it has adopted any measures, such as extending the service hours and increasing the number of consultations to enhance the services of these clinics in the past three years;

(b) how it arrived at the estimated figure of 4.76 million attendances this year at the general out-patient clinics under the Department of Health;

(c) whether it has surveyed the demand for general out-patient service in various districts; if it has, of the survey results; if it has not, of the criteria and statistics which provide the basis for determining the number of consultations, service hours and resource allocation for the general out-patient clinics in various districts; and

(d) whether it has investigated the reasons for non-urgent patients using the service of accident and emergency departments; if it has, of the investigation results and whether they are related to insufficient general out-patient services; if it has not, whether it will conduct such an investigation ?

Reply :

Madam President,

(a) The average utilisation rates of the 37 general out-patient clinics with average utilisation at or above 92% in 1999 were 95.2%, 95.2% and 94.9% in 1997, 1998 and 1999 respectively. The utilization rate of each of these clinics is at Annex.

During the past three years, the Department of Health (DH) has adopted a number of measures to enhance its general out-patient services. These included opening four new general out-patient clinics, providing evening service in four clinics and Sunday/public holiday service in three clinics, providing service during morning and afternoon at all public holiday clinics and extending such service to all public holidays, and increasing the number of daily consultations per doctor from 90 to 92 in day clinics.

(b) The projected 4.76 million attendances at DH's general out-patient clinics in 2000 was derived from the estimated attendances in 1999 and the expected increase in attendance arising from the opening of an additional clinic in Cheung Sha Wan and the full year effect of the operation of the Kowloon Bay General Out-patient Clinic.

(c) We regularly monitor the utilisation of general out-patient clinic services. In districts where demand for service is high, as evidenced by high utilization rates of clinics concerned, we will consider means to enhance the services.

(d) The Hospital Authority conducted a survey in March 1998 to understand the usage pattern of Accident and Emergency (A&E) services. It was then found that A&E departments recorded the highest attendance at 9am to noon, 1pm to 4pm and 8pm to 11pm, with semi-urgent and non-urgent patients taking up 73% of the attendance. Adequate public and private outpatient services are available during the A&E peak hours in the morning and the afternoon sessions. Out-patient services are also provided in some government and private clinics during the evening session.

END/Wednesday, May 17, 2000

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