"Building a Healthy Tomorrow"
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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Hospital Authority (HA) Board discussed and endorsed at the Administrative and Operational Meeting today (October 27) the response of the Authority to the Discussion Paper of Health & Medical Development Advisory Committee (HMDAC) - "Building a Healthy Tomorrow" - The response will be submitted to the Government before the end of the public consultation period on October 31, 2005.
The Chairman of HA, Mr Anthony Wu, said that following the release of the Discussion Paper in July this year, the HA Board has set up a working group comprising 11 HA Members to study and deliberate on the implications of the HMDAC proposals with a view to formulating a consolidated response.
"To ensure thorough discussions within HA, the HMDAC proposals were considered by all relevant functional committees under the Board, the governing committees of individual hospitals, and the three Regional Advisory Committees of HA. The proposals were also discussed in a series of cluster-based staff forums and various staff group consultative committee meetings to take the views of staff members into consideration.
"In general, we welcome the policy directions and recommendations proposed in the HMDAC Paper. The importance placed by the HMDAC on preventive and primary care and its emphasis on private sector involvement are considered appropriate and in line with international trend.
"However, concerns have been consistently expressed across HA over the timing, logistics and resources required to put the HMDAC recommendations into practice. A lot of detailed work would need to be done to address the healthcare financing options, staffing and training arrangements, infrastructural requirements and other implementation details for the specific proposals of the HMDAC Paper. The HA will work closely with the Government in the implementation of the proposals."
Highlights of HA's response to different areas of the HMDAC recommendations are as follows:
Primary Medical Care Services
- HA supports the direction to strengthen primary medical care services and promote the family doctor concept. We suggest the Government to set up a family doctor registry and develop incentive schemes for private sector to enhance their role as principal provider of primary medical care.
- To facilitate collaboration among medical and other professionals at the district level, HA recommends the Government to enhance the role of existing community health centres and appoint an overall co-ordinator to ensure effective collaboration across agencies.
- Regarding purchasing primary medical services from the private sector, it is essential for the Government to provide a set of clear policy parameters within which purchasing may take place.
Hospital Services
- In order to ensure public resources are being used efficiently and effectively, HA had launched numerous programmes over the years to rationalise service provision, for instance, the introduction of cluster management structure.
- HA has also introduced different measures to address the issues of utilisation behaviour. For instance, the clinical triage system in Accident & Emergency Departments and specialist out-patient clinics giving higher priority for patients with urgent conditions. HA suggests the Government to develop incentive system to address problem of inappropriate utilisation behaviour.
- HA supports the direction to facilitate the setting up of a greater number of 24-hour medical clinics. There should be sharing of clinical information between HA and these 24-hour clinics to facilitate patient movement.
Tertiary & Specialised Services
- Over the years HA has consolidated specialised services in order to concentrate expertise, improve quality of care, strengthen training capabilities, and enhance cost effectiveness. HA has also taken measures to facilitate public-private collaboration in specialised services.
- HA agrees that the Government should maintain a high subsidy rate to tertiary and specialised care services. HA also considers that the case to levy a larger co-payment on those with financial means merits further assessment.
Elderly, Long-term & Rehabilitation Care Services
- HA supports that Residential Care Homes for Elderly should engage doctors to provide medical care to their residents, but there is a need to address the practical issues involved.
- Employment of registered nurses for elderly and rehabilitation care in Non-Governmental Organisations may be prohibitively expensive. HA considers there are merits in training a special group of healthcare workers for such purpose.
Infrastructural Support
- Over the years HA has developed significant world-class informatics and information technology systems: Clinical Management System (CMS), electronic patient record (ePR), high risk elderly database, telemedicine video-conferencing, and Notifiable Disease Outbreak Reporting System.
- HA supports the promotion of free flow of patient records and the systems mentioned above can provide a solid foundation for future developments. However, the Government would need to address a number of issues such as financial and resources implications, privacy and standardisation of data, as well as system security.
Ends/Thursday, October 27, 2005
Issued at HKT 20:56
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