Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ9: Donations to public hospitals
Following is a question by the Hon Kwok Ka-ki and a written reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today
(November 21):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective funding provisions for and donations obtained from the
community by each of the hospitals tabulated in Annex I in each of the past five
years;
(b) whether the Hospital Authority has issued any guidelines on the usage of
donations by hospital clusters and hospitals within their purview; and
(c) as some doctors have relayed to me that public hospitals are presently
required to pass all the donations they have raised to their respective hospital
clusters for reallocation, whether the Government is aware of this arrangement
and whether it has assessed if the arrangement will hamper the desire of people
in the community to make donations?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The Hospital Authority (HA) delivers services through its seven hospital
clusters. It allocates the funding provisions received from the Government to
its seven hospital clusters and the Hospital Authority Head Office (HAHO). The
HA allocates the provisions mainly based on the consideration of factors such as
individual clusters' service demands, service development, operational needs of
existing facilities, etc. Funding provisions allocated by the HA to the hospital
clusters from 2003-04 to 2006-07 are set out in Annex II. Details of the total
amount of donations and the five largest donations received by the HA's
hospitals are set out in Annex III.
(b) The HA has issued internal guidelines and rules to all hospitals, clearly
specifying that all hospitals must ensure that all donations received are
utilised in strict accordance with the instruction and intention of their
donors. In cases where the donors have not given any written instruction on the
use of their donations, the donations will be used to subsidise the day-to-day
operation of the hospitals. The deployment of donations is subject to scrutiny
by the HA's in-house and external auditors to ensure that they are used in
accordance with the instruction of the donors and the procedures are also in
compliance with the HA's guidelines and rules.
(c) The HA fully takes into account the instruction and intention of the donors
in its deployment of donated funds. Unless the donors clearly specify that their
donations are to be given to the HAHO or other specific cluster/ hospital, there
is no need for a hospital to submit the donations it receives to the HAHO or its
hospital cluster for re-allocation.
Ends/Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Issued at HKT 14:52
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