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The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, visited a private residential care home for the elderly (RCHE) and a private residential care home for persons with disabilities (RCHD) in Sham Shui Po today (July 26) to gain a better understanding of the residential care services and living environments provided by small private homes.
"The Government adopts a multi-pronged approach to increase the provision of residential care services for the elderly and persons with disabilities.
"Apart from substantially allocating additional resources to increase the provision of residential care places and speeding up the provision through bought place schemes, the Government is also committed to improving the service quality of private homes so that service users can have more choices," Mr Cheung said.
He pointed out that in the light of the operating experience of the statutory licensing scheme of RCHEs, the Government enacted the Residential Care Homes (Persons with Disabilities) Ordinance last month to regulate and enhance the quality of RCHDs through a statutory licensing scheme. The Residential Care Homes (Persons with Disabilities) Regulation stipulating the requirements for the operation, management and supervision of RCHDs has also been submitted to the Legislative Council for scrutiny.
The statutory licensing scheme for RCHDs will come into operation on November 18, 2011, if the Regulation is passed by the Legislative Council. In tandem, the Director of Social Welfare will also issue a Code of Practice for RCHDs to elaborate on the details of the service standards required under the licensing scheme.
Mr Cheung said, "To encourage private RCHDs to upgrade their service quality, we have introduced a four-year pilot Bought Place Scheme for private RCHDs to purchase 300 places in two phases. The Social Welfare Department will also launch a Financial Assistance Scheme to provide subsidies for private RCHDs to carry out improvement works in compliance with the licensing requirements in building and fire safety."
The Government has been increasing the provision of subsidised residential care places for persons with disabilities in recent years. In 2010-11 and 2011-12, 1 046 new residential care places will be provided. In addition, the Government has already earmarked 10 sites in future development projects for the construction of new RCHDs. Subject to progress, it is expected that an additional provision of around 1 006 residential care places will be provided in the next five years.
Regarding RCHE places, the Government has focused its effort on increasing the provision of subsidised nursing home (NH) places and care-and-attention places offering a continuum of care in recent years. From 2011-12 to 2014-15, 1 205 additional NH places will commence operation, representing an increase of over 50 per cent of the total number of NH places at present. Furthermore, the Government will provide 793 additional EA1 places under the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme (EBPS) in 2011-12 and 2012-13.
As at the end of June, there were 587 private RCHEs in the territory, providing 52 858 places including 7 145 subsidised places under the EBPS. There are also 74 private RCHDs offering around 3 800 places.
Ends/Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Issued at HKT 16:47
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