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Following is a question by the Hon Abraham Shek and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (February 3):
Question:
According to the findings of a survey conducted earlier on residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) by an elderly association, 90% of the elderly and over 90% of their family members responding to the survey are in favour of introducing a professional grading system on the performance of private RCHEs, so as to enhance the transparency of RCHEs in the market. Under the existing arrangement of the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme, the CSSA payments for elderly recipients staying in RCHEs will be deducted if they receive contributions from their family members to meet part of the home fees. The findings of the survey also reveal that elderly people consider that the authorities need to review the arrangement so that more elderly people can afford to stay in private RCHEs, and then the quality of such institutions can be upgraded comprehensively. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it will introduce a professional grading system on the performance of private RCHEs to enhance their transparency, so as to facilitate the public in choosing elderly services; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(b) whether it will review the aforesaid arrangement of the CSSA Scheme so that elderly recipients staying in private RCHEs will be allowed to receive financial support from their family members to cover part of the home fees without their CSSA payments having to be deducted; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(c) whether inspections of RCHEs have been stepped up after the elder abuse incident in a private RCHE in Sheung Shui, so as to prevent the recurrence of such incidents; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(d) of the number of elder abuse cases uncovered during inspections of private RCHEs by the Social Welfare Department (SWD) in the past three years, as well as the follow-up actions taken by SWD and the results of such actions?
Reply:
President,
(a) The Government has been encouraging providers of elderly services (including residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs)) to participate in quality accreditation or assessment programmes with a view to enhancing their institutional management and service quality. At present, there are a number of independent quality accreditation or assessment programmes in the market, some of which are tailor-made for providers of elderly service, such as the Project on Accreditation System for Residential Care Services for the Elders in Hong Kong implemented by the Hong Kong Association of Gerontology and the Quality Elderly Service Scheme implemented jointly by the Hong Kong Health Care Federation and the Hong Kong Productivity Council. Elderly service providers can participate in these programmes on a voluntary basis. In order to further encourage RCHEs to participate in accreditation or assessment programmes, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) has, in the latest round of the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme (EBPS) purchase exercise, awarded additional scores to RCHEs which have passed accreditation or assessment. Besides, in order to enhance the transparency of information on RCHE and facilitate the public in choosing residential care services, information on all licensed RCHEs (including the name, address, type and number of places, licence period and licensing conditions, etc.), a list of RCHEs participating in the EBPS, a directory of services offered by different RCHEs, information on RCHEs that were successfully prosecuted and letters issued by SWD to RCHEs providing guidelines on drug management and fee-charging of RCHEs, have been uploaded to the website of SWD for public reference.
(b) The purpose of the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme is to help families (including elders) with financial difficulties to meet their basic needs. It is a non-contributory social security scheme funded entirely by general revenue involving a large amount of public funds. Due care must therefore be exercised when assessing applications to ensure that this safety net is sustainable. As such, in determining the eligibility of elderly applicants for CSSA and the amount of CSSA payable to them, the Government has to take into account the overall resources and needs of the elders concerned, to ensure that CSSA payments are used to assist those with genuine financial difficulties. In accordance with this principle, regardless of whether or not an elderly recipient is staying in a private RCHE, the Government has to take into account the resources provided by family members to the elder when deciding the amount of CSSA payable to him/her.
(c) All RCHEs must be licensed and are regulated by SWD. In accordance with the existing legislation, the Licensing Office of the Residential Care Homes for the Elderly (LORCHE) of SWD inspects RCHEs from time to time and adjusts the frequency of inspection based on the risk level of individual RCHEs. LORCHE will step up its inspection efforts on RCHEs that have been found non-compliant or have poor track records (including the RCHE where the elder abuse incident mentioned in the question took place) to closely monitor their service performance.
To prevent the recurrence of elder abuse incidents in RCHEs, SWD has issued letters to all RCHEs reminding them to investigate any suspected elder abuse incidents as soon as possible in accordance with the "Procedural Guidelines for Handling Elder Abuse Cases" and refer the cases to social workers for professional assessment and formulation of follow-up measures for the elders. LORCHE has also urged all RCHEs to pay attention to the professional ethics of their staff and encourage their staff to attend training programmes with a view to enhancing their care knowledge and skills. Besides, LORCHE has again reminded RCHEs to display in prominent places notices on the channels for reporting/complaints, making it easier for staff, elderly residents and their family members, as well as other people to report any suspected elder abuse incidents through these channels.
(d) In the past three years, SWD uncovered one elder abuse case during its inspections of RCHEs. In that case, an inspector of LORCHE found that a staff member of the RCHE concerned had applied physical restraint inappropriately, causing bodily harm to an elderly resident. LORCHE immediately intervened, arranged for the elder to seek medical consultation in a hospital and also convened a "multi-disciplinary case conference" so that the professionals concerned (including the doctor, police officer, occupational therapist and social worker, etc.) could formulate a welfare plan for the elder. Besides, LORCHE also issued a warning letter to the RCHE, urging it to better manage its staff in using physical restraint. During the follow-up inspection, LORCHE found that the RCHE had made improvement accordingly and that the services provided also complied with licensing requirements.
Ends/Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Issued at HKT 11:51
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