Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ9: Costs of services of Hospital Authority
Following is a question by the Hon Leung Ka-lau and a written reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today
(June 13):
Question:
In a reply to my question on May 9, 2012, the Food and Health Bureau pointed out
that the mechanism of Hospital Authority (HA) for costing "was developed with
reference to the practices of global medical institutions and the cost
accounting standards", and it set out the percentages of various key cost
components, including "direct service costs", "expenses on clinical support
services", "costs of various non-clinical support services and daily expenses of
hospitals", "institutional items", and "charges for services provided by
government departments", in the total unit costs of "costs per patient day for
general inpatient services", "costs per accident and emergency attendance" and
"costs per specialist outpatient attendance" in the past four years. In this
connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a)given that the Government pointed out that the percentages of various cost
components for 2011-2012 were being calculated by HA, whether it knows the
progress of the calculation and whether it can provide any information at
present; and
(b)whether it knows the percentages of the various aforesaid key cost components
(including the expenditure on "doctors", "nurses" and "supporting staff" who are
directly involved in the services of various specialties, the expenditure
required for the "daily operation of various specialist services", "anaesthesia
service", "pharmacy", "pathology", "diagnostic radiology", "allied health
services", "meals for patients", "utility expenses", "repair and maintenance of
medical equipment and machinery", "insurance costs", "information technology
support for clinical computer systems", "building maintenance provided by the
Architectural Services Department" and other expenditures, etc.) in the total
unit costs of costs per patient day for general inpatient services, costs per
accident and emergency attendance and costs per specialist outpatient
attendance, and set out the information in the table in Annex 1?
Reply:
President,
(a)The Hospital Authority (HA) follows an established mechanism to calculate the
average costs of various services every year. Relevant costs will be calculated
with reference to the total costs for each service and the corresponding volume
of activities after the closing and audit of the final accounts for the year,
and will be published in the HA Annual Report. The financial statement of
2011-12 is being audited and the cost information of various services is
expected to be published in the HA Annual Report by the end of 2012.
(b)As the complexity of patients' conditions and the diagnostic services,
treatments and prescriptions required vary in different years, the average
service costs of different services differ between years and cannot be compared
directly. Various key cost components from 2007-08 to 2010-11 are set out in the
table in Annex 2.
Ends/Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Issued at HKT 12:55
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Annex 1
Annex 2