Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ6: Services of Kowloon East Hospital Cluster
Following is a question by the Hon Alan Leong and a reply by the Secretary for
Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (December 5):
Question:
Among the seven hospital clusters under the Hospital Authority (HA), the Kowloon
East Cluster (KE Cluster) ranks fourth in terms of population but last in terms
of funding allocation for the current financial year. Comparing with KE Cluster,
the populations of the Hong Kong West Cluster and Kowloon Central Cluster last
year were respectively 43% and 47% less while their funding allocations for the
current financial year are respectively 20% and 39% more. Consequently, the
services of KE cluster are under great pressure. In this connection, will the
Government inform this Council:
(a) as the Government has indicated that one of the main advantages of forming
hospital clusters is the provision of comprehensive medical care in a single
cluster, whether any hospital services currently provided by other clusters are
unavailable in KE Cluster; if there are, whether it knows if HA has any plans to
introduce such services in KE Cluster based on the demographic structure of KE
and the medical needs of residents in the district;
(b) whether it knows if HA plans to revise the criteria for allocation of funds
to various clusters to ensure that medical services for residents covered by KE
Cluster are comparable to those for residents of other districts; if there are
revision plans, of the details and implementation date; if not, the reasons for
that; and
(c) whether the Government will take other measures to alleviate the pressure on
the cluster (such as allocating land within the district for the construction of
private hospitals); if it will, of the details of and implementation schedule
for the measures; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) & (b) At present, the Hospital Authority (HA) provides public health care
services on a cluster basis. The objective of the cluster arrangement is to
clearly delineate the roles of different hospitals within each cluster and
enable collaboration and complementary support among hospitals, so that a full
range of health care services can be provided to residents of different
districts through the overall service network of the HA.
In planning their services, the clusters adopt the principle of taking into
consideration the local services demand and the development of various
specialist services. Specifically, health care services having a continual need
such as basic, specialist, emergency and in-patient services are provided by all
clusters. Specialist services having a relatively small demand and requiring
other complex supporting facilities for delivery are mainly provided to the
public on a cross-cluster basis under a service network formed by two or more
clusters. Neurosurgery and oncology services are examples of such services. As
for those specialist services that have a limited demand and require some
state-of-the-art technologies, equipment and comprehensive supporting facilities
for delivery, they are provided by tertiary services centres at designated
hospitals. Organ transplant and burn centers are examples of these services. The
above principle for service planning could achieve cost-effectiveness and help
pool together the experience of health care professionals and ensure the quality
of services.
As in the case of the other six hospital clusters, the Kowloon East Hospital
Cluster (KE Cluster) does not solely consider the size of local population in
planning its services. It also takes into account of other factors such as the
role of each hospital within the cluster, the service utilisation pattern of
residents and the demographic profile in order to provide appropriate services
for residents in the region.
The KE Cluster now provides a range of comprehensive services including
out-patient services, acute and emergency services, long term rehabilitation
services and community-based specialist services, which are basically the same
as those provided by the other six hospital clusters. These services cover 24
hour accident and emergency service, in-patient service (supported by the
specialties of medicine; surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics and
adolescent medicine, orthopaedics and traumatology, anaesthasia, intensive care
unit, neonatal intensive care unit, infant high dependency unit, paediatric
intensive care unit, high dependency unit, ophthalmology, ear, nose and throat,
geriatrics, psychiatry, pulmonary and hospice), day services (such as day
surgery, specialist out-patient service, general out-patient service and family
medicine), clinical ancillary services (such as pathology, radiology, pharmacy
and non-emergency ambulance service), rehabilitation services, and community
outreach services (such as volunteer services and community nursing care). In
addition, the KE Cluster also runs support service programmes for patients
discharged from hospitals, pain clinic, medical imaging network and integrated
rehabilitation services.
Furthermore, a cross-cluster referral mechanism is in place in the HA for
referral of patients in need to hospitals in other cluster for appropriate
follow-up treatment. For some specialist services, patients in KE Clusters are
referred to other clusters to receive cross-cluster services. These services
include major trauma, burn, neurosurgery, organ transplant, neonatal surgery,
spinal rehabilitation, oncology, AIDS service, genetic medicine and infectious
disease, etc.
When allocating its resources to the hospital clusters, the HA considers not
only the population of the regions but also the demographic profiles as well as
the resources required for the provision of basic and specialist health care
services, for cross-cluster tertiary specialist services for residents in other
clusters, and for manpower training and education. HA allocates its resources to
clusters having regard to the above factors as well as the demand for manpower,
drugs and equipments, etc of different clusters.
The HA reviews and improves from time to time its existing mode of resources
allocation for the purpose of enhancing the overall effectiveness of resources
utilisation. The HA and KE Cluster would continue to closely monitor the
utilisation of health care services in the KE region, and adjust the resource
allocation where appropriate in the light of the changes and development of
service demand in order to ensure the provision of adequate health care services
to residents in the region.
(c) To cope with the increase in service demand in the region, the HA has in
2007-08 provided the KE Cluster with an additional allocation of about $30
million on top of pre-existing provision to implement new service programmes and
measures. The programmes and measures include, among others, day surgical and
day care services of Tseung Kwan O Hospital; improvement scheme for the same-day
admission service of the United Christian Hospital; a patient flow management
scheme for medicine and geriatric departments within the KE Cluster; measures in
response to the increase in service demand in obstetric departments and neonatal
intensive care units; and a scheme to provide integrated discharge support
services to elderly patients. These programmes and measures are being
implemented progressively within this financial year.
Ends/Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Issued at HKT 14:29
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