Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ8: Services of Maternal and Child Health Centres
Following is a question by the Dr Hon Pan Pey-chyou and a written reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today
(February 1):
Question:
It has been reported that the problem of mainland pregnant women giving birth in
Hong Kong is worsening with no improvement over the years, causing serious
impact on the provision of obstetrics and gynaecology services in public and
private hospitals, and the problem has already extended to Maternal and Child
Health Centres (MCHCs), exerting heavy pressure on the services of MCHCs as well
as affecting the use of such services by local babies. In this connection, will
the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of newborn babies receiving services in various
MCHCs in Hong Kong in the past five years, together with a breakdown by baby
born to parents who are both Hong Kong permanent residents, only one of whom is
a Hong Kong permanent resident and who are both not Hong Kong permanent
resident;
(b) given that it has been reported that recently there are agencies which bring
a large number of mainland women and their newborn babies to MCHCs every time to
use the services, but quite a number of them have not made appointments in
advance, and some of them even behave in an unhygienic and inconsiderate manner
in MCHCs, which adversely and seriously affects the hygienic conditions in MCHCs
and substantially increases the workload of healthcare staff in MCHCs, whether
the authorities have any targeted measure in place to rectify the problem; if
they have, of the specific details and time of implementation; if not, the
reasons for that; and
(c) whether the authorities have any formulated administrative measure to ensure
that the use of child care services of MCHCs by newborn babies of parents who
are both Hong Kong permanent residents or those born to parents one of whom is a
Hong Kong permanent resident will not be affected by the aforesaid situation; if
they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
It is the Government's policy to ensure that Hong Kong residents (both pregnant
women and infants) are given priority for services and care. The Government is
very concerned about the surge of demand for obstetric services in Hong Kong by
non-local women (including Mainland women) in recent years, which have caused
tremendous pressure on the overall obstetric and neonatal care services. Since
mid-2011, we have launched further measures to ensure that adequate obstetric
and neonatal care services are available in Hong Kong, and local pregnant women
are given priority for obstetric services. The number of non-local pregnant
women giving birth in Hong Kong in 2012 will be limited to 35 000 (including 3
400 delivery places for non-local women in the Hospital Authority and around
31,000 planned number of deliveries in private hospitals), representing a
decrease of nearly 20 per cent as compared with the number of deliveries by
non-local women in 2011 (i.e. some 43 000). We will carefully plan the number of
deliveries by non-local women for next year to ensure that obstetric services
for local pregnant women will not be affected.
With an increase in the number of newborn babies, there has been a surge of
demand for maternal and child health services. We will continue to monitor the
situation closely and adopt appropriate measures to ensure that children born in
Hong Kong will continue to enjoy quality and professional services.
(a) The numbers of newborn babies receiving services in various Maternal and
Child Health Centres (MCHCs) in Hong Kong with the breakdown of their parents'
residential status in the past five years are set out in the Annex.
(b) MCHCs under the Department of Health (DH) are always committed to serving
the community and maintaining their service quality. To provide quality
services, reduce waiting time and maintain good order at MCHCs, we require all
users to make prior appointments. Information hotlines have been set up for
users to make appointments and enquire the opening hours of various MCHCs. In
addition, we require users to wait in an orderly manner and keep quiet in MCHCs.
Posters have also been put up at MCHCs to remind users to pay attention to their
personal hygiene and keep the environment clean. DH will continue to monitor the
situation and adopt appropriate measures to maintain the service quality.
(c) We must ensure that children born in Hong Kong will continue to receive
quality and professional services. MCHCs will strive to maintain the current
arrangement for newborn babies to be seen within one to two working days after
registration to ensure that they receive appropriate health assessment and
neonatal services.
In the wake of a continuous growth in the number of newborn babies in recent
years, we are exploring allocating more resources for MCHCs to cope with the
service demand, including expansion of the Fanling and Hung Hom MCHCs. We will
continue to monitor the demand for the services of MCHCs and deploy resources
according to the utilisation of individual MCHCs to ensure that the standard of
services provided to babies in Hong Kong will not be affected.
Ends/Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Issued at HKT 14:43
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Annex to LegCo Q8