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LCQ3: Mainland women giving birth in Hong Kong

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     Following is a question by the Hon James Tien and a reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (November 10):

 

Question:

 

     The number of pregnant women from the Mainland giving birth in public hospitals in Hong Kong has been on the rise, putting pressure on staffing in hospitals in New Territories East and New Territories West, and may thus affect the provision of medical services for residents of the districts concerned.  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:

 

(a)    the monthly usage rates of obstetrician and neonatal services provided in public hospitals in the above districts over the past year, and the percentage of Mainland people among all the users of the services;

 

(b)    as many Mainland pregnant women seek admission to public hospitals in the districts concerned after midnight, the number of such pregnant women over the past year, as well as the reasons for this phenomenon; and

 

(c)    the estimated time for completing the night-time staffing improvement programme for labour wards, the staffing levels assessed to be adequate under the programme, as well as how the day-time staffing for such wards will be arranged?

 

Reply:

 

Madam President,

 

(a)    The average utilisation rates of the obstetrics and neonatology services in public hospitals in the New Territories East (NTE) cluster over the past year were 72 per cent and 86 per cent respectively, and in the New Territories West (NTW) cluster 67 per cent and 80 per cent.  The monthly utilisation figures are provided in the Annex.  In NTE, 32 per cent of the pregnant women who used the obstetrics services were from the Mainland.  In NTW, the percentage is 30 per cent.

 

(b)    Of the pregnant women from the Mainland who presented themselves to a public hospital for admission to give birth over the past year, 29 per cent of them have done so after midnight and before morning (i.e. from 12 to 6 am).  This percentage is slightly higher than the proportion of local pregnant women who sought admission in the same time period of the day at 23 per cent.  A possible explanation for the slightly higher percentage by Mainland women is the higher fees charged by the Hospital Authority (HA) for non-eligible persons, which is $3,300 per day as compared with $100 per day for eligible persons, that caused some Mainland women to wait until after midnight before presenting themselves at a hospital in order to avoid one extra day's charge.

 

(c)    In order to ensure that there is sufficient manpower to handle the added workload in the obstetrics wards, both the NTE and NTW clusters have made appropriate and flexible deployment in the light of the demand situation in their respective districts.  The improvement measures taken include more flexible deployment of staff within the clusters, strengthening of the training for nurses on midwifery, recruitment of additional part-time staff and better arrangement of the staff level in all shifts at obstetrics wards.  The HA will closely monitor the demand in obstetrics services in the New Territories.  It will also determine the appropriate staff level to ensure the quality of its obstetrics and neonatology services, taking into account the workload at individual hospitals, the environment at the wards, the organisation of these departments, the relevant work procedures and the composition of the medical teams.

 

     To resolve the problem of the increasing use of HA services by non-residents, we are considering a number of proposals, which include -

 

* Increasing HA's medical fees (including imposing a minimum charge) for non-entitled persons;

 

* Increasing the deposit to be paid by non-entitled persons upon admission into an HA hospital for emergency cases;

 

* For non-emergency cases, requiring the payment of a deposit at the time when a non-entitled person makes an appointment for consultation at a specialist outpatient clinic or an elective procedure at a hospital instead of at the time of consultation and hospital admission respectively; and

 

* HA refusing to provide further medical services to non-entitled persons who have yet to settle an outstanding fee.

 

     The Administration is still at an early stage in its assessment of the above possible measures.  Once the assessment results are available, we will submit the Administration's recommendations to the Council's Panel on Health Services for discussion.

 

Ends/Wednesday, November 10, 2004

NNNN

 

Legislative Council Q3

Annex

Utilisation rates of the Obstetrician and Neonatal Services in NTE Cluster

 

Oct 03

Nov 03

Dec 03

Jan 04

Feb 04

Mar 04

Apr 04

May 04

Jun 04

Jul 04

Aug 04

Sep 04

Average

Obstetrics

66.6

57.7

60.1

60.2

71.7

73.1

73.4

77.5

73.2

75.1

81.1

90.9

71.7

Neonatal

94.2

80.9

71.7

76.5

79.7

82.5

84.7

88.1

87.7

88.8

100.6

95.9

85.9

 

Utilisation rates of the Obstetrician and Neonatal Services in NTW Cluster

 

Oct 03

Nov 03

Dec 03

Jan 04

Feb 04

Mar 04

Apr 04

May 04

Jun 04

Jul 04

Aug 04

Sep 04

Average

Obstetrics

77.8

66.5

60.1

58.2

59.4

53.6

61.2

61.3

69.7

71.4

76.1

90.0

67.1

Neonatal

76.6

78.4

69.2

76.7

68.4

74.3

91.6

85.3

72.1

89.2

86.9

94.4

80.2

12 Apr 2019