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Following is a question by Dr Hon Joseph Lee and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (June 26):
Question:
It is learnt that there has been a long-standing shortage of paramedical and nursing staff in residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs). The Government has provided additional funding of $356 million, for the three-year period from 2012-13 to 2014-15, to support the RCHEs under non-governmental organisations and the "EA1 homes" under the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme (the RCHEs concerned) in recruiting and retaining paramedical staff. Some members of the sector have relayed that the provision of more training opportunities for nurses working in RCHEs would help RCHEs retain nursing staff. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the total number of the RCHEs concerned from which applications for the aforesaid additional funding the authorities have received, the respective numbers of applications approved and rejected, as well as the total amount of funding granted (with a breakdown by type of RCHEs), since last year;
(b) of the number of paramedical staff employed last year by the RCHEs concerned using the aforesaid additional funding and the total amount of funding involved, as well as the number of RCHEs involved (with a breakdown by type of RCHEs and grade of the staff concerned);
(c) of the respective average numbers of residents, nurses and paramedical staff in the RCHEs which have been granted the aforesaid additional funding; if it knows the average turnover rate of the paramedical staff in the RCHEs concerned in each of the past five years, and whether the additional funding had helped alleviate the turnover of such staff; if it had not, whether the authorities will further increase the funding to improve the situation; if they will do so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(d) whether it knows the average nurse-to-resident ratios, the average expenditure incurred on training in-service nurses, as well as the average person-times of staff receiving such training and the respective contents of the relevant programmes, in various types of RCHEs in each of the past five years; whether the authorities will consider increasing the provision of funding to provide training subsidies to nurses working in RCHEs, so as to ensure good nursing care quality in RCHEs; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the question raised by Dr Hon Joseph Lee is as follows:
(a) An additional funding of $356 million has been provided to the Social Welfare Department (SWD) for allocation to subvented non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which need to employ paramedical staff as well as private residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) offering EA1 places under the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme (EBPS) from 2012-13 to 2014-15 to allow them to offer more competitive salaries for the recruitment and retention of paramedical staff.
Altogether 75 out of the 77 eligible subvented NGOs (including service providers of day-time and residential care services for the elderly) and 36 eligible private EAI homes under the EBPS have accepted the additional funding allocation. A total of some $355 million has been disbursed.
(b) Under the funding arrangement, the subvented NGOs and EBPS homes are required to submit to the Administration annual financial reports by the end of October 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively and disclose the amount of additional funding spent. By the end of October 2015, they are also required to submit a full report on how they have utilised the additional funding during the three-year period, including the number of paramedical staff that they have so engaged. Since the full report is not yet due for submission, SWD is unable to provide at this stage the breakdown of how such resources have been used, including the number of paramedical staff employed.
(c) The organisations which have received the aforesaid additional funding operate different types of service units, including rehabilitation service units, day-time or residential elderly service units. There are about 3 700 paramedical posts (including posts at non-elderly service units) in the reference establishment of these organisations. Of these posts, about 3 000 are nurses, some 560 are physiotherapists and occupational therapists, and the remaining 110 or so are speech therapists and clinical psychologists. The subvented RCHEs and EBPS homes which have received additional funding are providing services for about 20 000 elderly residents.
SWD does not maintain statistics on the turnover rate of paramedical staff in elderly service units. However, it is widely recognised by the sector that the additional funding has enabled the operators to offer more competitive salaries for the recruitment and retention of paramedical staff, thus alleviating the problem of staff turnover. The Administration will continue to monitor closely the manpower situation of paramedical and nursing staff in the elderly service sector, and formulate appropriate measures accordingly.
(d) RCHEs are required to employ appropriate nurses and nursing staff (including health workers) in accordance with the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Ordinance (Cap 459) or the Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Maternity Homes Registration Ordinance (Cap 165), and other service/contract requirements applicable to those RCHEs with subsidised places. The Licensing Office of the Residential Care Homes for the Elderly (LORCHE) of SWD conducts inspections from time to time at RCHEs and monitors the quality of services (including manpower arrangement) of RCHEs according to the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Ordinance and the relevant provisions.
To facilitate RCHEs to enhance the quality of services, SWD provides training for staff of elderly service units on a regular basis. In 2013-14, SWD will offer 180 and 300 training places to professional staff (i.e. social worker and paramedical staff) and non-professional staff of elderly service units respectively.
SWD does not keep any record on the average nurse-to-resident ratio in RCHEs, expenditure for training in-service nurses, attendance and content of the training courses concerned.
Ends/Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Issued at HKT 12:35
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