LCQ11: Statistics on the services of public hospitals
*****************************************************
Question:
Regarding the statistics on the services of public hospitals, will the Government inform this Council if it knows:
(1) the respective numbers of (i) inpatient discharges or deaths, (ii) day inpatient discharges or deaths and (iii) specialist outpatient attendances, in each of the past five years, with a tabulated breakdown by (a) clinical department, (b) gender of the patients and (c) the age group to which the patients belonged;
(2) the respective numbers and percentages of those people who had settled in Hong Kong for less than seven years among the patients counted in the statistics in (1); if the Hospital Authority (HA) is unable to provide such information, the reasons for that, and whether HA will start collecting such information; and
(3) the respective numbers and percentages of those people who were non-eligible persons among the patients counted in the statistics in (1)?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the various parts of the question raised by the Hon Mrs Regina Ip is as follows:
The public healthcare services provided by the Hospital Authority (HA) are charged according to patients' status as eligible persons (EPs) or non-eligible persons (NEPs). EPs include (a) holders of Hong Kong Identity Card issued under the Registration of Persons Ordinance (Cap. 177); (b) children who are Hong Kong residents and under 11 years of age; and (c) other persons approved by the Chief Executive of the HA. Persons who are not in the above categories are classified as NEPs. The HA does not maintain statistics on patients' years of residence in Hong Kong and has no plan to collect such data from patients.
The table at Annex 1 sets out the number of inpatient discharges and deaths by major specialties in the HA, as well as the respective percentage share in respect of patients aged 65 or above, female patients, male patients and NEPs, from 2014-15 to 2018-19 (up to December 31, 2018).
The table at Annex 2 sets out the number of day inpatient discharges and deaths by major specialties in the HA, as well as the respective percentage share in respect of patients aged 65 or above, female patients, male patients and NEPs, from 2014-15 to 2018-19 (up to December 31, 2018).
The table at Annex 3 sets out the number of specialist outpatient (clinical) attendances by major specialties in the HA, as well as the respective percentage in respect of patients aged 65 or above, female patients, male patients and NEPs, from 2014-15 to 2018-19 (up to December 31, 2018).
Ends/Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Issued at HKT 13:05
Issued at HKT 13:05
NNNN