Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ1: Maternal and child health centres and woman health centres

Following is a question by the Hon Law Chi-kwong and a reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, in the Legislative Council today (December 11):


Question :

Regarding the woman health services provided by maternal and child health centres ("MCHCs") and woman health centres ("WHCs") under the Department of Health, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) given that the respective estimated numbers of attendances and enrolment for woman health services for this financial year are 36 000 and 18 000 only, whether it plans to promote woman health services extensively; if so, of its target;

(b) whether it has set any indicator according to the population for planning the respective numbers of MCHCs and WHCs to be established in each district; if so, of the indicator; and based on such indicator, whether the current numbers of MCHCs in various districts and their present scope of services should be adjusted; if no such indicator has been set, how resources are allocated in response to the demographic changes in various districts; and

(c) of the progress of the work to extend woman health services to MCHCs, and the utilisation of such services in the first 10 months of this year?


Answer :

Madam President,

The Department of Health (DH) set up the Woman Health Service in 1994. The aim is to promote the health of women and address their health needs at various stages of life through -

* enhancing the awareness and encouraging the practice of healthy lifestyle in women;
* educating women on the prevention of important health problems; and
* providing women with specific screening services.

The scope of the Woman Health Service includes (i) health education and counselling and (ii) screening which covers physical examination, laboratory services including cervical screening, mammography screening and other investigations as clinically indicated.

(a) DH provides women health services through its three Woman Health Centres (WHCs) at Chai Wan, Lam Tin and Tuen Mun. The service was extended to five Maternal and Child Health Centres (MCHCs) in 2001 and further to another five MCHCs from November 2002. This will bring the maximum number of enrolment for women health services to 23 200 annually. To promote the women health service, DH has distributed posters and leaflets at DH clinics, hospitals, District Offices, women's groups and concerned parties.

In addition to the women health services at WHCs, DH provides a comprehensive range of promotive and preventive services covering child health, maternal health and family planning in its MCHCs. The maternal health service provides preventive and promotive services through antenatal and postnatal care. Women of child-bearing age are provided with family planning services, including contraceptive advice, cervical smear screening test and infertility counselling.

Apart from DH, women health services are also provided by the private sector and non-governmental organisations (NGO), such as the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong which receives subvention from the Government. The government will continue to work in collaboration with other health care providers, offering a full range of preventive programmes and review regularly the coverage of women health services.

(b) DH will take into account the population profile and local needs in the planning of health care facilities including MCHCs and WHCs. In the light of decreasing birth rate and a corresponding reduction in the demand for conventional MCHC services, DH has enhanced the service scope and work processes of MCHCs which, coupled with redeployment of resources, produce overall improvement in service quality. These include -

* Extension of women health services to 10 MCHCs;

* Enhanced group counselling such as breastfeeding counselling to provide individual assessment and coaching;

* Implementation of the universal and intensive parenting programme from September 2002;

* Standardisation and enhancement of professional services and support through the use of manuals and protocols; and

* Enhanced health education programme through provision of comprehensive health educational information in the form of leaflet, video and workshops.

Preparations are being made to implement the territory-wide cervical screening programme in 2003-04 to increase the population coverage of the screening test. Further refinement to service scope will be considered in the light of changing population needs.

(c) The extension of women health services to the first five MCHCs went smoothly. The second batch of five MCHCs has started providing women health service from November 2002. The utilisation rate of the three WHCs in the first 10 months of 2002 was 98 per cent; whereas the utilisation rate in the first five MCHCs which provide women health service has increased from 57 per cent in November 2001 to 76 per cent in October 2002. DH will closely monitor the service utilisation to facilitate review and fine-tuning of service scope and content.

End/Wednesday, December 11, 2002
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