Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ4: Medical records
Following is a question by the Hon Christopher Chung Shu-kun and a reply
by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative
Council today (July 10):
Question:
Regarding the arrangements for the provision of medical records to
patients by the public hospitals under the Hospital Authority (HA), will
the Government inform this Council:
(a) given that patients of public hospitals or their families are
required to pay for access to medical records or the copies of medical
records they apply for, but the hospitals provide the records in English
only, and patients have to arrange for translation at their own cost if
they need to have the records in Chinese, thus having to pay additional
fees, whether the Government has assessed if such an arrangement has
undermined patients' right to information and discriminated against
patients who are illiterate in English; whether it knows the
difficulties of HA in providing medical records in Chinese at patients'
requests;
(b) given that according to the Official Languages Ordinance, the
Chinese and English languages are the official languages of Hong Kong
which possess equal status, but in reply to my enquiry, Pamela Youde
Nethersole Eastern Hospital (the Hospital) under HA indicated that
patients' medical records were all written in English, and the Hospital
was unable to provide the service of translating those records into
Chinese, it could however provide a list of translation service agencies
to facilitate patients' arrangement for the translation of the medical
records into Chinese, yet the English version of all the treatment
records issued by the Hospital should prevail, whether the Government
knows the justifications for the English version of treatment records to
prevail; since the relevant Chinese translation is prepared by a
translation service agency on the list provided by the Hospital, why the
Chinese version still does not have the same effect as the English
version; whether it has assessed if the practice of the Hospital has
discriminated against the legal status of the Chinese language; and
(c) whether it knows if HA has plans at present to use Chinese
comprehensively in the documents prepared by it and the public
hospitals, as well as in recording the treatment methods, names of
diseases and names of drugs, etc.; if HA has, of the progress; if not,
the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
Regarding the Member's question on provision of medical records for
patients by public hospitals under the Hospital Authority (HA), my reply
is as follows:
(a) to (c) English is currently the language most commonly used in the
practice of western medicine around the world. For healthcare personnel
trained in western medicine in Hong Kong, English is their medium of
learning and hence predominantly the language used by them in writing
clinical records. Medical records are kept primarily to record and
report patients' medical conditions, and facilitate communication among
healthcare professionals so that the most appropriate treatment and
follow-up services can be rendered to the patients. Given the medical
terminologies involved, it is more desirable in terms of accuracy for
such records to be made in English.
Both English and Chinese are the official languages of Hong Kong and the
two possess equal status under the Official Languages Ordinance. Keeping
medical records in English is in full compliance with the provision. Any
patient who needs to know his medical conditions may approach the
healthcare personnel concerned, who should be ready to explain in detail
the relevant diagnostic results, development of his case, treatment
procedures, etc. As such, the right to know is as well safeguarded for
patients not proficient in English as for other patients. There is no
discrimination against patients who do not know English.
The HA has an established mechanism through which patients may access
personal data and request for duplicates of records. Patients who need
duplicates of their medical records may apply to the relevant hospitals.
Duplicates of the documents requested will be produced from the
patients' records available in the hospital archive. The original
patient/medical records are mainly in English as they were written on
the spot by healthcare personnel when the medical service was provided.
Chinese translations of the English medical records produced by
translation agencies are for reference only. In this connection, the
list of translation agencies provided by hospitals is also for patients'
reference only. For better understanding of the content of the medical
records, patients may approach the healthcare personnel concerned.
Generally speaking, all HA notices and notifications to patients are now
issued in both English and Chinese. However, given that English is the
medium of learning for local healthcare personnel and there is a need to
ensure the accuracy of patient/medical records written on the spot at
the time the medical service is provided, the HA presently has no plan
to switch the language used in medical records from English to Chinese.
Ends/Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Issued at HKT 14:49
NNNN