Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ7: General out-patient clinics

Following is a question by the Hon Michael Mak and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, in the Legislative Council today (October 30):

Question:

Regarding the scheme for the Hospital Authority ("HA") to take over all the general out-patient clinics of the Department of Health, will the government inform this Council:

(a) of the financial and staffing implications of the take-over scheme on HA, and whether the scheme will lead to the implementation of further enhanced productivity programmes by HA;

(b) of the details of the conditions of service to be offered to the clinic staff who opt to take up HA's employment; how the authorities concerned will ensure that these staff will all be employed by HA with salaries and fringe benefits no less favourable than the existing level; and

(c) whether it will introduce voluntary retirement scheme or early retirement scheme for those clinic staff who are not offered employment by HA; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

(a) To better integrate our primary and secondary levels of medical services in the pubic sector and to promote the wider practice of family medicine, the management of the General Out-patient Clinics (GOPCs) will be transferred from the Department of Health (DH) to the Hospital Authority in the second half of 2003. To implement the transfer of these clinics, the Government has approved a special one-off grant to HA. These resources will cover the initial setup cost of the GOPCs after the transfer and the additional operating cost during and in the immediate transfer period to enable a smooth transfer of services. In addition, we are now working out the recurrent resources which the Government will transfer from DH to HA to operate the GOPCs. The implementation of enhanced productivity initiatives is an ongoing process in the entire Government and all its subvented bodies including HA. This has no specific relations to the GOPC transfer exercise. As to staffing, due to the introduction of family medicine, the mode of operation of the GOPCs under HA would in the long run be different from that under DH, hence necessitating changes in the staffing structure. The full staffing implications can only be finalised after the current resource for transfer had been finalised.

(b) It is the policy that, the transfer of GOPCs should not jeopardise the legitimate claims of all affected GOPC staff as civil servants. The Government will first endeavour to redeploy them in DH or other Government departments. Staff who cannot be absorbed or redeployed within the civil service in the first instance will continue to work in the clinics as civil servants working in HA until they are eventually absorbed by the Government or leave the civil service due to retirement or other reasons. For those departmental staff from the ranks of Senior Medical & Health Officer, Medical & Health Officer, Enrolled Nurse, Senior Dispenser and Dispenser who are not absorbed by DH in the first instance, they will be given a period of two years to consider between two options, either as civil servants working in HA or give up civil service status and take up HA's employment. Staff taking up HA's employment will be converted to a comparable HA rank on a point-to-point basis. The salary of all staff accepting HA's employment will not be reduced by the conversion process. In addition to the basic salary, staff accepting HA's employment will also, in accordance with HA's current employment condition, receive a monthly allowance, which will be based on the salary point of the staff and the pension arrangement they have chosen.

(c) As it is our objective that all GOPC staff will either be absorbed by DH to its other operations or, continue to work in the clinics after the transfer (either as civil servants working in HA or as HA's employees), currently there is no plan to introduce a separate Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) just for the staff affected by the transfer exercise. However, if the Government decides later to introduce a new round of VRS service-wide, we will consider from an overall manpower point of view whether these grades should be included in the new round.

End/Wednesday, October 30, 2002
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