Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ18: Nursing manpower of public hospitals
Following is a question by the Dr Hon Joseph Lee and a written reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today
(January 13):
Question:
Regarding the manpower of nurses in the Hospital Authority (HA), will the
Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) the numbers of nurses who had departed/retired from public hospitals under
HA in each of the past three years, with a breakdown by the hospital and
specialty to which such nurses belonged, as well as by their rank and length of
service, and among such vacancies, the number of those which have been filled at
present; if such vacancies have not yet been filled, of the reasons for that,
and the expected time for them to be filled;
(b) if HA has adopted new measures to retain nurses, so as to prevent departure
of nurses from its public hospitals; if it has, of the details; if not, the
reasons for that; and
(c) if there were nurses who had reached the retirement age and had applied for
deferment of their retirement in the past three years; if so, of the number of
such applications and the reasons for deferring retirement, with a breakdown by
the rank of the applicant; whether it has assessed if such applications will
impede the promotion opportunities of serving nurses?
Reply:
President,
(a) In the past few years, the nursing manpower of the Hospital Authority (HA)
has been increasing continuously. From April 1, 2007 to November 30, 2009, the
number of full-time equivalent nurses in HA increased from 19,212 to 19,885.
The turnover figures of nurses (including retiring nurses) in the HA Head Office
and various hospital clusters in the past three years by rank, specialty and
length of service are at Annex. In 2007/08, the number of departed nurses was
844, including 75 retiring nurses, and the overall turnover rate of nurses for
the whole year was 4.5%. In 2008/09, the number of departed nurses was 877,
including 97 retiring nurses, and the overall turnover rate of nurses for the
whole year was 4.7%. In 2009/10 (as at November 30), the number of departed
nurses was 510, including 155 retiring nurses, and the overall turnover rate of
nurses for the whole year is estimated at 4.0%. Based on the general
circumstances of the nursing profession, a steady turnover rate of around 4%,
with continuous replenishment with new recruits, is considered normal.
HA fills its vacancies of nurses (including turnover vacancies and newly created
nurse positions to cope with service and operational needs) through external
recruitment and internal promotion. Vacancies of junior nurse posts are
generally filled by external recruitment. As for vacancies of promotion posts,
HA would select and promote suitable nurses to fill the vacancies through
internal recruitment as far as possible.
In the past three years (i.e. from April 1, 2007 to November 30, 2009), HA has
filled 2,392 vacancies of nurses and 1,457 vacancies at the rank of Advanced
Practice Nurse or above through external recruitment and internal promotion
respectively. On the whole, the number of vacancies filled exceeds the number of
turnover.
(b) To strengthen the retention of nurses, HA has implemented a number of
initiatives to enhance the professional development of nurses and broaden their
promotion pathway. These include strengthening clinical and specialist training
for nurses, as well as the introduction of a new three-tier nursing career
structure by phases from June 2008 to provide nurses with a clinical promotion
ladder in addition to the existing nursing management promotion pathway. Under
the new structure, HA has created the post of Nurse Consultant to broaden the
clinical career development pathway of nurses; provided higher rate of allowance
to Department Operations Managers working in large departments; and established
additional Advanced Practice Nurse positions in clinical departments to provide
more supervisory support.
At the same time, to strengthen the recruitment of nurses, HA has implemented in
recent years several measures to improve the employment conditions of nurses.
These include raising the starting pay of nurses, extending the contract period
of Registered Nurses to six years, and providing permanent employment
opportunities to eligible full-time contract Registered Nurses. Moreover, HA has
also implemented various measures to improve the working arrangements of nurses,
including reducing the non-clinical work handled by nurses, improving the
equipments frequently used by nurses to alleviate their workload, as well as
increasing the flexibility in recruitment and employing more part-time nurses,
etc.
(c) In the past few years, only a very small number of nurses in HA who reached
the retirement age had applied for and were approved deferment of retirement.
The impact on the promotion prospect of existing nurses is insignificant.
Ends/Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Issued at HKT 15:09
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Annex to LCQ18