Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ15: The mortality rates of in-patients and turnover rates of healthcare staff in public hospitals
Following is a question by the Hon Albert Ho and a written reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today
(May 6):
Question:
Regarding the mortality rates of patients and turnover rates of healthcare staff
in public hospitals under the Hospital Authority (HA), will the Government
inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) the respective mortality rates of patients and turnover rates of healthcare
staff in various acute hospitals and in various hospital clusters last year; and
(b) if HA has looked into the reasons for the higher mortality rates of patients
in some acute hospitals and hospital clusters and put forward improvement
proposals; if it has, of the details; if not, whether it will conduct a review?
Reply:
President,
(a) The mortality rates of in-patients and turnover rates of healthcare staff in
various acute hospitals and hospital clusters under the Hospital Authority (HA)
in 2008/09 are at Annex 1 and Annex 2 respectively.
(b) HA collects statistical data of various hospital clusters and hospitals,
including data on mortality rates on a regular basis. There are variations among
hospitals in terms of the scope of specialty services, the types of hospital
beds and the distribution of the number of beds among specialties, while the
demographic profile and age distribution of the people served also varied among
them. All these factors can affect the mortality rates in the hospitals. It is
not appropriate to make comparison solely on the mortality rates between
individual clusters and hospitals and there is not necessarily any correlation
between the mortality rates in individual clusters/hospitals and the turnover
rates of healthcare staff.
At present, HA hospitals hold regular meetings to review death cases occurring
in hospitals. Where necessary, individual death cases will be referred to the
Coroner's Court for independent inquiry in accordance with the relevant
legislation.
Ends/Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Issued at HKT 14:12
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Annex to LCQ15