Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ7: Hospital Authority Review Steering Committee
Following is a question by the Hon Alice Mak and a written reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative
Council today (October 9):
Question:
Given comments that the management of the Hospital Authority (HA) is
plagued with problems, including "fattening the top and thinning the
bottom" in the management, the lack of co-ordination among hospital
clusters, the uneven distribution of resources among the various
clusters and the excessively long waiting time for patients, etc.,
coupled with the challenges arising from ageing population, the Food and
Health Bureau has earlier established the Hospital Authority Review
Steering Committee (Steering Committee). In this connection, will the
Government inform this Council:
(a) of the approach of the review; who will be responsible for
monitoring the review process; how the public may participate in the
review;
(b) of the review timetable, including the estimated dates of completion
and release of the report;
(c) as there are criticisms that the Steering Committee lacks
representatives from frontline healthcare personnel and patients' rights
groups, whether the authorities will adopt any measure to enhance the
representation of the Steering Committee, such as making additional
appointments of various stakeholders as its members; if so, of the
details; if not, the reasons for that;
(d) of the scope of the review, and whether it will include the issue of
uneven distribution of resources among the hospital clusters; if so, of
the details; if not, the reasons for that; whether any priority area for
review has been set; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for
that; and
(e) as some healthcare practitioners have relayed to me that the
authorities have all along lacked an effective mechanism to regularly
review the operation of HA, resulting in HA being plagued with problems,
whether the authorities will consider establishing such a mechanism; if
so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My reply to various parts of the Hon Alice Mak Mei-kuen's question is
set out below:
(a), (c) and (e) The Government has all along attached importance to the
work of the Hospital Authority (HA) and has been monitoring and
reviewing its operation with a view to ensuring that HA provides quality
public healthcare services for the community.
HA is an independent statutory body established under Cap. 113 of the
Laws of Hong Kong. The relevant legislation includes provisions
specifying that HA should use the resources efficiently to provide
hospital services of high quality.
To ensure accountability to the public for the management and control of
the public medical services system, three Government officials (namely
the Permanent Secretary for Food and Health (Health), the Director of
Health, and the Deputy Secretary for Financial Services and the
Treasury) are ex-officio members of the HA Board and participate in the
governance of HA. The Secretary for Food and Health holds monthly
meeting with the HA management to monitor its work. Moreover, the
Government sets out HA's performance targets in the Controlling
Officer's Report under a Head of the Estimates every year. These
performance targets cover various aspects, including access to services
(such as waiting time), delivery of services, quality of services, cost
of services and manpower, etc. HA Board and the Government, through
regular reports submitted by HA, assess and examine HA's performance in
accordance with these targets.
Since its establishment over 20 years ago, HA has been providing quality
healthcare services with international acclaim. In view of the ageing
population and the changing public needs for healthcare services, we set
up the Hospital Authority Review Steering Committee (the Steering
Committee) in August 2013 to conduct a comprehensive review of the
operation of HA.
Chaired by the Secretary for Food and Health, the Steering Committee
comprises non-official members, official members and HA representatives.
Non-official members of the Steering Committee comprise individuals from
a wide range of backgrounds and interests, including doctors, nurses,
academics, frontline staff of HA, as well as representatives from the
business and the welfare sectors and patient groups.
To enable more comprehensive consideration of the views of frontline
staff and hospitals of different sizes, the Government announced on
September 19, 2013 the appointment of a frontline doctor and a frontline
nurse from HA as additional members of the Steering Committee.
In addition to having a diversified composition with different
stakeholders, the Steering Committee will, during the course of the
review, collect and listen to views in the community through different
channels such as focus group discussions and consultation forums as well
as meetings with concerned organisations in the field.
(b) and (d) As regards the scope of review, the Steering Committee held
its first meeting in late September and agreed that HA's management and
cluster arrangement, resources management, human resources management,
service levels and overall cost effectiveness will be fully examined.
The aim of the review is to improve the operation of HA so that, as the
cornerstone of the public healthcare system and the safety net for the
public, it can continue to provide quality services and meet the
challenges brought about by social development and ageing population
more effectively.
Depending on the actual progress of work, we envisage that the review
could be completed in about one year.
Ends/Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Issued at HKT 15:16
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