Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ8: Nursing manpower

     Following is a question by the Hon Tam Yiu-chung and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (November 3):

 

Question:

 

     It has been reported that a number of recent medical incidents were suspected to be related to the shortage of medical and health care personnel. Besides, homes for the elderly have also experienced shortage of nursing manpower for a long time. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:

 

(a)  it knows the respective numbers of nursing staff at various ranks in the Hospital Authority (HA) who left employment over the past three years, and whether there has been an increase in the wastage of HA nursing staff during that period; if so, the reasons for that;

 

(b)  it has any plan to re-open the seven closed nursing schools so as to increase the nursing manpower; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

 

(c)  it has any plan to help those who have completed nursing training in the Mainland to become qualified for practice in Hong Kong, in order to alleviate the shortage of nursing manpower; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

 

(d)  it has other plans to ensure the availability of sufficient nursing manpower, thereby safeguarding the quality of public health care services as well as services for the elderly; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

 

Reply:

 

Madam President:

 

(a)  The turnover of nurses and its breakdown by rank in the Hospital Authority (HA) during the past three years are as follows:

 

Staff type                       01-02   02-03   03-04

Nursing officer and above         80      63      236

Registered nurse                 159     120      407

Enrolled nurse and others         77      67      219

Total                            316     250      862

 

     The main reason for the increase in turnover of nurses in the past year was due to the implementation of voluntary early retirement schemes by Government and the HA.

 

     The overall supply of new nurse graduates is estimated to increase from 340 in 2004 to about 530 in 2005, and around 600 in each of the subsequent years. It is therefore expected that the strain in nursing manpower will be relieved gradually in the coming years.

 

(b)  It is our policy to upgrade basic nursing education to degree level in line with international trend to enhance the professionalism of nurses. Degree nursing education is presently offered by tertiary education institutions. The nursing schools used to train nurses at the sub-degree level. We have no plans to continue with sub-degree nursing training in these nursing schools in the long run. Nevertheless, to alleviate the problem of shortage of nurses in the short term, the HA is conducting three sub-degree nursing training courses at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Nursing School in collaboration with tertiary education institutions. For the longer term, our policy remains to upgrade basic nursing training to degree level.

 

(c)  To safeguard public health, Government must ensure that all health care professionals have attained satisfactory professional standards. Hence, it is important that the competency of non-locally trained nurses be suitably assessed before they are allowed to practice.

 

     So long as the applicants can provide their training records, qualifications and working experiences related to nursing to the satisfaction of Nursing Council of Hong Kong and pass the Licensing Examination held by the Council, they are eligible for registration/enrollment as nurses in Hong Kong.

 

(d)  The anticipated increase in the supply of nurse graduates in the coming years would be able to relieve the nursing manpower shortage in HA and in the welfare sector. In addition, the HA will continue to explore ways to alleviate the workload of frontline nursing staff. For example, this year the HA has retained over 200 undergraduate nursing students on temporary employment to provide workload relief for nursing staff. Besides, the HA has deployed supporting staff to assist nurses in carrying out simple patient care duties which do not require professional nursing knowledge.  Examples of these duties are bed baths, oral health care, giving out bedpans and urinals, and feeding patients.  More supporting staff will be deployed to assist in such duties in future.  These measures enable nurses to continue to concentrate on providing qualify professional care for patients. 

 

Ends/Wednesday, November 3, 2004

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