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Following is a question by the Dr Hon Joseph Lee Kok-long and a reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (October 19):
Question :
In the 2011-2012 Budget, the Government proposed to increase annual recurrent funding by $40 million to raise government subsidies in the price for EA1 places under the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme and to require the residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) concerned to employ physiotherapists or engage relevant professional services, so as to arrange physiotherapy treatment and rehabilitation training for the frail elderly in RCHEs. In addition, the Government increased annual recurrent funding by $45 million to provide support by means of supplements for demented or infirm elderly persons staying in RCHEs or using the services provided by day care centres for the elderly (D/Es), thereby enabling the service units concerned to arrange physiotherapy treatment and rehabilitation training for such elderly persons with the supplements. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) since April 1 this year, of the respective numbers of RCHEs and D/Es which have arranged physiotherapy treatment and rehabilitation training for the elderly with the two aforesaid subsidy arrangements, and the respective percentages of such numbers in the total numbers of RCHEs and D/Es;
(b) whether the authorities know the respective numbers of physiotherapists and occupational therapists providing services through RCHEs and D/Es concerned to the elderly under the two different arrangements of making use of the aforesaid subsidies to employ physiotherapists/ occupational therapists or engage the relevant professional services by RCHEs and D/Es;
(c) whether the authorities have assessed why some RCHEs and D/Es do not arrange physiotherapy treatment and rehabilitation training for the elderly; if they have, of the details; if not, whether they will consider making such an assessment so as to conduct a review; whether they will consider enhancing the aforesaid subsidy arrangements, so as to attract the participation of more RCHEs and D/Es; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(d) whether the authorities have assessed if there is adequate supply of allied health professionals, such as physiotherapists and occupational therapists, in the manpower market at present to provide the aforesaid services; if they have, of the details; if not, whether an assessment will be made; and if the assessment outcome indicates an insufficient supply of manpower, whether they will consider enhancing the relevant training?
Reply :
President,
My reply to Hon Joseph Lee Kok-long's question is as follows:
(a)-(c) Additional funding under the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme (EBPS)
To enhance the service quality of residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) under EBPS, the Government has, since 2011-12, increased the recurrent funding by $40 million to raise the purchase price for EA1 places. The RCHEs concerned are required to provide physiotherapy treatment and rehabilitation training for the elderly.
At present, 12 EA1 homes have employed physiotherapists and nine are purchasing physiotherapy services. Another 12 EA1 homes have done both. These 33 RCHEs constitute 92% of all the EA1 homes. The remaining three RCHEs are unable to engage suitable physiotherapy services for the time being. The Social Welfare Department (SWD) will closely monitor the situation in this regard.
Infirmary Care Supplement (ICS) and Dementia Supplement (DS)
Besides, additional recurrent funding of $45 million has been allocated by the Government since 2011-12 to increase ICS and DS for subvented RCHEs and EBPS homes and, for the first time, provide DS to day care centres/units for the elderly.
The RCHEs can flexibly use these supplements to employ additional staff (including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nurses, health workers and care workers, etc) or purchase relevant professional services. Nonetheless, they are required to report to SWD details of the expenditure to ensure that the supplements were used for the specified purpose. Since the funding was approved at the beginning of this financial year and the RCHEs are using it to gradually employ additional staff and purchase services, SWD is unable to provide relevant figures at this stage.
As to the day care centres/units, they have all along been deploying existing resources flexibly to employ the necessary paramedical staff (such as physiotherapists and occupational therapists, etc). DS is additional resources for them and hence SWD does not specifically require that the day care centres/units spend it on additional professional services. However, SWD requires them to submit information on training activities conducted each year for the purpose of service monitoring.
(d) The Administration understands that there is a strong demand for paramedical staff in the social welfare sector. We therefore have an established mechanism to assess the manpower demand and supply and will draw up long-term plans accordingly.
Specifically, the Government will advise the University Grants Committee (UGC) regularly on the demand for tertiary training places, so that the tertiary institutions can make reference to such information when preparing academic development proposals. When UGC was working on the academic plans for the 2012/13 to 2014/15 triennium, SWD had updated its projections on the demand (including present and future demand) for various types of paramedical staff in the social welfare sector. The projections have been relayed to UGC through the Education Bureau. The Policy Address has announced that in the triennium mentioned above, the Government will increase the number of training places for health professionals, including 146 for allied health professional (eg physiotherapists and occupational therapists, etc).
Ends/Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Issued at HKT 13:26
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