************************************
Following is a question by the Hon Law Chi-kwong and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, in the Legislative Council today (March 12):
Question:
Regarding the provision of services and the manpower in public hospitals, will the Government inform this Council :
(a) of the forecast of the following figures at the end of this and each of the coming three fiscal years : the number of staff members in each rank of the medical, nursing and allied health grades, the number of beds, the ratio of beds to population and the ratio of beds to manpower of health care personnel;
(b) how the above figures compare to the actual figures concerned in each of the past three fiscal years; and
(c) whether it has assessed if the standard of health care services provided by public hospitals will be compromised due to a reduction in health care personnel in the coming three fiscal years; if it has, of the details?
Reply:
(a) and (b)The international trend has been to focus on the development of ambulatory and community care programmes and to replace, where appropriate, in-patient treatment by ambulatory and out-patient services. Such development has been made possible following the advances in medical technology. Hospital Authority (HA) has in recent years stepped up its developments on day surgery, day care, out-patient services, community nursing and outreach programmes. In response to this shift to day community care, HA plans to adjust inpatient general beds in order to rationalise its service provision. The change in the service delivery model has also resulted in different staffing levels as well as staff mix for the clinical staff workforce.
The requested manpower and bed statistics from 1999/2000 to 2003/04 are set out below :
1999/2000 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04*
(Actual) (Actual) (Actual) (Estimate) (Estimate)
Doctors 3 674 3 895 4 105 4 279 4 587
Nurses 17 335 18 230 19 289 19 515 19 485
Allied Health
Professionals 4 458 4 527 4 637 4 710 4 902
Beds as at
end March 28 517 28 877 29 022 29 288 28 088
Beds per
1 000
population 4.25 4.24 4.22 4.23 4.01
Staff per bed
- Doctors 0.13 0.13 0.14 0.15 0.16
- Nurses 0.61 0.63 0.66 0.67 0.69
- Allied health
professionals 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.16 0.17
Notes:
- All staff members (permanent, contract and temporary terms) are included in the reported figures on full-time equivalent basis.
- Doctors refer to consultants, senior medical officers/associate consultants/medical officers/residents.
- Nurses refer to qualified nurses.
* Staffing position includes staff to be transferred from the Department of Health to the Hospital Authority upon the transfer of General Out-patient Clinics (GOPCs) scheduled for July 2003.
HA has yet to work out its plan on the number of beds and manpower requirements for the years beyond 2003/04.
(c) In 2003/04, HA is able to maintain the clinical staff workforce through stringent saving measures in other areas, such as continued reduction of managerial and supporting staff, and re-engineering business support initiatives in procurement and supplies, catering, laundry, etc. Through cluster-based and territory-wide service rationalisation programmes, HA will continue to re-engineer service provision to cater for the increasing needs of the population despite resource constraints. All these measures help to ensure that service quality will not be compromised.
End/Wednesday, March 12, 2003
NNNN
