Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ4: United Christian Hospital

Following is a question by the Dr Hon Kwok Ka-ki and a verbal reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (June 18):

Question:

Some doctors of the United Christian Hospital (UCH) have relayed to me that because of insufficient resources and space, the hospital is facing various difficulties, which include the lack of rehabilitation beds, not having certain specialty services (e.g. neurosurgery and oncology) and shortage of consultation rooms in Kwun Tong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether it knows if the resources allocated to UCH will be further reduced, and if the outpatient consultation rooms of UCH have to be split into two with partition screens due to shortage of consultation rooms, in order that more patients can be treated at the same time; if there is such situation, whether the authorities have assessed if measures need to be drawn up to improve the situation;

(b) of the measures to enable Kwun Tong residents to receive neurosurgery, oncology and in-patient rehabilitation services within the district; and

(c) whether it knows why the Hospital Authority has not expeditiously implemented the project to demolish the nursing quarters of UCH for in-situ expansion of the hospital to help ease the plight of UCH, and whether the authorities will provide assistance to facilitate the implementation of the project this year?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) To meet the demand for healthcare services in the Kowloon East (KE) region, an additional allocation of about $17.7 million has been included in the 2008-09 subvention for the Hospital Authority (HA) to implement a number of measures to enhance the services of the KE Cluster. These include setting up an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist centre and an integrated breast centre at the United Christian Hospital (UCH). In addition, UCH will enhance its services for stroke patients and physiotherapy assessment services on neck and back. It will also set up an oncology outpatient clinic, provide occupational therapy services for psychiatric patients and provide 24-hour pharmacy services for patient of the Accident and Emergency department and other in-patients.

Since the expansion of the specialist outpatient clinic (SOPC) of UCH in 1995, the attendances of SOPC have increased from 210,000 then to 435,000 in 2007. To cope with the service demand, some consultation rooms need to be split into halves for two doctors to provide consultation services at the same time. But each half of these consultation rooms will be separated by walls and curtains.

UCH has also reviewed the utilisation of its consultation rooms and other facilities, with a view to fully utilising the space of existing consultation rooms through flexible arrangement. For example, four available consultation rooms of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department are used for breast and chest out-patient services of the surgical department on Wednesday mornings; and six available consultation rooms of the Paediatrics Department are used for palliative out-patient services of the Medical Department on Wednesday afternoons. In addition, UCH will continue to explore other possible ways to vacate more space for consultation services, such as to switch from the current arrangement for individual specialty to conduct patient registration separately, to a centralised registration system.

(b) Neurosurgery service has a relatively limited demand and requires complex supporting equipment and technicians to deliver. These services are currently centralized by HA at a few tertiary services centres and are provided to the public on a cross-cluster basis. Such arrangements could achieve cost-effectiveness and help pool together the experience of health care professionals and ensure the quality of services. At present, the neurosurgery service of KE Cluster is supported by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital of the Kowloon Central (KC) cluster.

As regards oncology service, the KE Cluster plans to provide additional oncology out-patient service and set up an integrated breast centre at UCH in 2008-09, so as to further enhance the oncology service in the region. It is estimated that the oncology out-patient service could serve 300 cancer patients annually, and the breast centre could provide an additional 1,800 attendances each year.

As for in-patient rehabilitation service, some 300 convalescent beds are currently provided by the KE Cluster. In addition, the Kowloon Hospital, the specialist rehabilitation hospital in the adjacent KC cluster, provides a further 192 convalescent beds for the KE Cluster.

(c) HA will regularly review the services of the KE Cluster having regard to the demographic changes, increase in service demand and service utilisation and will plan for services and facilities as necessary. HA is now conducing preliminary planning on the expansion project of UCH, and will examine the project plan and submit to the Government for consideration in accordance with its established procedures. Details of the project are not yet available at the present stage.


Ends/Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:55

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