Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ9: Allied health professionals of Hospital Authority
Following is a question by the Hon Joseph Lee Kok-long and a written reply by
the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council
today (June 20):
Question:
It has been learnt that the Hospital Authority (HA) anticipates that healthcare
staff born in the post war baby boom are close to their retirement age and a
wave of retirement will emerge in HA. In this connection, will the Government
inform this Council if it knows:
(a) the number of allied health professionals reaching retirement age in the
coming 10 years as anticipated by HA, and list in Annex 1 the respective numbers
of staff in allied health grade of various hospital clusters retiring each year;
(b) whether HA anticipates that there will be a sufficient number of experienced
allied health professionals by that time to fill those vacancies arising from
the retirement of allied health professionals; if so, the details; if not, how
the authorities will resolve the relevant problem; and
(c) whether HA will focus on the retirement of experienced allied health
professionals one after another and introduce new measures to retain experienced
allied health professionals to work for HA; if it will, the details; if not, the
reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
With an ageing population and advancement in medical technology, there is an
increasing demand for healthcare services in the community, and the manpower
requirement for healthcare personnel grows commensurately. We have set up the
Steering Committee on Strategic Review on Healthcare Manpower Planning and
Professional Development, chaired by the Secretary for Food and Health, to
conduct a strategic review on healthcare manpower planning and professional
development in Hong Kong. The Steering Committee is tasked to formulate
recommendations on how to cope with anticipated demand for healthcare manpower,
strengthen professional training and facilitate professional development having
regard to the findings of the strategic review, with a view to ensuring the
healthy and sustainable development of our healthcare system. On the training
for healthcare professions, with funding approved by the Finance Committee of
the Legislative Council, the Government will, for the three years starting from
2012-13, allocate an addition of $200 million to increase the number of
first-year first-degree places in medicine by 100 to 420 per year, nursing by 40
to 630 per year and allied health professional by 146.
Over the past few years, the Hospital Authority (HA) has adopted a series of
measures to address manpower issues. In 2011-12, HA has recruited 550 additional
allied health professionals to meet the service needs.
My reply to the various parts of the question is as follows:
(a) The numbers of allied health professionals (including clinical
psychologists, dietitians, medical social workers, occupational therapists,
physiotherapists, prosthetist-orthotists, speech therapists, medical
technologists, radiographers, radiotherapists, pharmacists and dispensers)
reaching retirement age in the coming 10 years as anticipated by HA, broken down
by grades, are listed in Annex 2.
(b) HA has always endeavoured to promote the continuing professional development
of allied health professionals in order to effectively replenish the loss of
professional skills arising from the turnover of allied health professionals. To
tie in with the development of the allied health grades, HA established the
Institute of Advanced Allied Health Studies in 2007 to develop structured and
long-term training plans for allied health professionals. It also provides
courses on specialist and multi-disciplinary training and personal development,
including a three-year in-service training course for new recruits. HA
subsidises allied health professionals to attend short-term courses or
internship programmes overseas so that they can draw on the service skills and
experience in different countries. HA also sponsors about 100 allied health
professionals each year to undertake degree/master degree courses. To enhance
the clinical skills of serving staff, HA has employed additional allied health
professionals in 2011-12 to promote clinical skill enhancement training in the
hospital clusters. In collaboration with local and overseas universities, HA
also organises training courses for pharmacy and paediatrics specialties having
regard to the service development needs.
Besides, HA has implemented a new pilot scheme on professional development
framework for three specialties in allied health grades (including the
musculoskeletal specialty in the physiotherapist grade, the mental health
specialty in the occupational therapist grade and the ultrasonography specialty
in the diagnostic radiographer grade) since 2008-09. Three consultant
therapist/diagnostician posts and 23 senior therapist/diagnostician posts have
also been created. After a review in 2010-11, the effectiveness of the above
scheme was confirmed to be satisfactory. HA is studying the extension of the
scheme to other specialties or allied health grades.
In general, HA conducts manpower deployment and planning having regard to
service development and manpower wastage every year, in order to cope with the
service needs. This includes the filling of vacancies subsequent to the
retirement of allied health professionals.
(c) To retain experienced allied health professionals, HA has taken proactive
measures to provide them with better career prospects and professional
development and improve their working conditions, so as to boost staff morale.
In 2011-12, a total of more than 280 allied health professionals were promoted.
Besides, HA has introduced new employment conditions for three grades (including
diagnostic radiographers, radiation therapists and podiatrists), with a view to
attracting overseas applicants while strengthening local and overseas
recruitment. In 2010-11, HA extended the overseas training subsidy scheme to
cover undergraduate courses on diagnostic radiography. Since the introduction of
the scheme, 25 students have been subsidised. To enhance training for allied
health professionals, HA has recruited additional staff for various grades in
2011-12 to enable more staff to participate in training courses without
affecting the daily operation of their departments. To enhance the work
efficiency and occupational safety of allied health professionals, HA has
replaced a total of more than 500 medical instruments and equipment in 2011-12
and recruited additional patient care assistants to assist in the daily
operation of various departments, so as to alleviate the work pressure on
frontline staff.
In 2012-13, HA will further implement a series of measures to increase allied
health manpower and retain talents, including strengthening allied health teams,
enhancing the training and development of allied health professionals,
conducting overseas recruitment for radiographers, implementing an overseas
degree course subsidy scheme for individual grades where the local training
places were insufficient to meet the manpower needs (e.g. radiographers and
chiropodists), re-engineering work processes and streamlining work procedures,
as well as recruiting additional patient care assistants.
Ends/Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Issued at HKT 15:50
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Annex 1
Annex 2