Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ18: Maternal and child health services
Following is a question by the Hon Alan Leong and a written reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative
Council today (January 22)
Question:
According to the Government's statistics, there were 91 558 babies born
in Hong Kong in 2012, and among them, 4 698 babies were born to mainland
women whose spouses were Hong Kong permanent residents (i.e. singly
non-permanent resident (SNR) children), and 26 715 babies were born to
mainland women whose spouses were not Hong Kong permanent residents
(i.e., doubly non-permanent resident (DNR) children). There have been
comments that although both SNR and DNR children are eligible to use the
child health services provided by the Maternal and Child Health Centres
(MCHCs) under the Department of Health, some of them do not use such
services probably because they do not reside in Hong Kong. In connection
with the services provided to children and women by MCHCs, will the
Government inform this Council:
(1) of the total number of children receiving services provided by MCHCs
at present, with a breakdown by age group and the resident status of
their parents in Table 1;
Table 1
Age group All children SNR children DNR children
Below 1
1 or above
(2) of the respective numbers of Hong Kong-born children in each of the
past five years who continuously used (i) the immunisation services and
(ii) the developmental surveillance and diet assessment services of
MCHCs, with a breakdown by the resident status of their parents and set
out in a table of the same format as Table 2; and
Table 2 Service:______________
Year All children SNR children DNR children
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
(3) of the respective numbers of women who used (i) the antenatal
services and (ii) the postnatal checkups and family planning advice
services of MCHCs in each of the past five years, with a breakdown by
the resident status of their spouses and set out in a table of the same
format as Table 3?
Table 3 Service:______________
Year All women SNR women DNR women
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Reply:
President,
It has been the Government's policy to provide public healthcare
services to local residents at highly subsidised rates. According to the
existing policy, holders of valid Hong Kong Identity Card or children
under 11 years of age who are Hong Kong residents are persons who are
eligible to use subsidised public healthcare services (i.e. Eligible
Persons (EPs)). The Department of Health (DH) has been reviewing the
future demand for maternal and child health services in response to
relevant factors such as the total number of births and the number of
new cases in the past. My reply to the various parts of the question is
as follows:
(1) and (2) The Maternal and Child Health Centres (MCHCs) under the DH
provide services for eligible children from birth to five years of age.
In the past five years, the total numbers of new cases served by the
MCHCs involving infants under one year of age, with breakdown by their
parents' eligibility status, are set out in Table 1 of the Annex. The
number of new cases involving children aged one year old or above is
around 6% to 8 % of the total number of new cases received annually.
However, the DH has not kept a breakdown on the number of new cases
involving children aged one year old or above by the eligibility status
of their parents.
Since an infant may receive various types of child health services, such
as "health and developmental surveillance" and "immunisation" services,
in the same consultation session, the DH does not have a statistical
breakdown on the number of consultation by type of services.
(3) In the past five years, the total numbers of attendance respectively
for maternal health service and family planning service provided by the
MCHCs, with breakdown by the user's eligibility status, are set out in
Tables 2 and 3 of the Annex respectively. The maternal health service
includes antenatal and postnatal services. Each year, the number of
attendance for postnatal service accounts for about 15 % of the total
number of attendance for maternal health service.
DH has not kept information on eligibility status of service user's
spouse.
Ends/Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Issued at HKT 19:16
NNNN
LCQ18 Annex