Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ4: Accident and emergency services of public hospitals
Following is a question by the Hon Wong Kwok-kin and a written reply by the
Acting Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, in the Legislative
Council today (February 11):
Question:
At present, the population of the Wong Tai Sin (WTS) district is about 420 000,
the second highest among the five District Council (DC) districts in Kowloon.
Among that population, 16.7% are people aged 65 or above, and this percentage is
the highest among the 18 DC districts. Some WTS residents have relayed to me
that residents in the district who need to use accident and emergency (A&E)
services of public hospitals have to seek medical treatment in other districts.
Such a situation causes inconvenience to the elderly and may cause delays in the
treatment for patients. In this connection, will the Government inform this
Council if it knows:
(1) the attendance of WTS residents using the A&E services of public hospitals
in other districts in each of the past five years, with a breakdown by hospital
cluster and hospital;
(2) the average waiting time for the A&E services of the three hospital clusters
of Kowloon in the past five years, with a breakdown by hospital cluster and
hospital;
(3) the average, shortest and longest time taken from WTS residents' calling for
emergency ambulance service to their arrival at the hospital in the past five
years, and how such figures compare with the relevant figures territory-wide;
(4) given that the Kai Tak Hospital under planning will provide A&E services to
WTS residents, but the authorities have anticipated that the first phase of the
construction works of the hospital will not be completed until 2021, whether the
Hospital Authority (HA) will improve the A&E services for WTS residents before
2021, including whether HA will consider afresh providing A&E services in Our
Lady of Maryknoll Hospital; if HA will, of the details; if not, the reasons for
that; and
(5) whether HA has planned to rationalise the areas covered by various hospital
clusters upon the commissioning of the Kai Tak Hospital; if HA has, of the
details, and how such plan will affect the A&E services for WTS residents; if
not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
We understand the concern of Wong Tai Sin residents on the provision of accident
and emergency (A&E) service for the district jointly by the acute hospitals of
several hospital clusters. The planning of the Hospital Authority (HA) for
healthcare services and facilities is based on the service supply and demand in
a cluster as a whole, taking into account the roles and long-term development
directions of the hospitals in the cluster, and the co-ordination of their
services and facilities. This is to ensure that the hospitals within the cluster
will complement each other by performing their respective roles and provide the
most appropriate healthcare services for the communities they serve. At present,
the A&E service of Wong Tai Sin is jointly provided by Kwong Wah Hospital in the
Kowloon West Cluster, Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the Kowloon Central Cluster
and United Christian Hospital in the Kowloon East Cluster. With the support of
these three acute hospitals, the demand for A&E service in the district has been
appropriately met in general.
My reply to the various parts of the question is as follows:
(1) Generally speaking, HA encourages patients to seek medical treatment from
hospitals in the cluster to which their residence district belong so as to
facilitate follow-up treatment for chronic illnesses/conditions and the
provision of community support. Nevertheless, under emergency circumstances, a
patient may be taken to an acute hospital near the scene of the incident instead
of one near his/her place of residence.
The statistics of A&E attendance of Wong Tai Sin residents in various clusters
under HA in the past five years are shown in Annex 1.
(2) HA adopts a triage system which classifies patients attending the A&E
departments according to their clinical conditions so as to ensure that patients
with more serious conditions are accorded higher priority in medical treatment.
The average waiting time for A&E patients of different triaged categories in the
three Kowloon clusters (i.e. Kowloon Central, Kowloon East and Kowloon West
clusters) for the past five years is listed in Annex 2.
(3) On emergency ambulance services, the performance pledge of the Fire Services
Department (FSD) is to respond to emergency ambulance calls within 12 minutes
from the time of call to the arrival on scene, and it is FSD's target to meet
this response time in 92.5 per cent of emergency calls. The average time from
calling for emergency ambulance services to arriving at the hospital for Hong
Kong as a whole and that for Wong Tai Sin District over the past three years
(Note) is listed in Annex 3.
The time required from calling for emergency ambulance services to arriving at
the hospital is affected by various factors, such as the circumstances at the
scene of the incident, the weather and traffic at the time of the incident, the
distance between the scene of the incident and the ambulance depot as well as
the hospital, and the level of injuries/illness of the casualties/patients.
(4) A number of related facilities are required in setting up an A&E department
in order to ensure its efficient operation. These include diagnostic
radiographic systems such as those for computerised tomography and magnetic
resonance imaging, operating theatres, an intensive care unit, clinical
laboratory service, a theatre sterile supplies department and a central sterile
supplies unit. The existing facilities in Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital (OLMH)
are not up to the standard of those for an acute hospital. Constrained by the
area and topographical environment, OLMH does not have enough space to install
new facilities or upgrade existing facilities to achieve the standard compatible
to a modern acute hospital. Therefore, after thorough consideration, HA
considers that it is inappropriate for OLMH to provide A&E service.
Nevertheless, we recognise that OLMH, having been built years ago, has
limitations in its facilities and supporting services and hence has a need for
redevelopment. HA is actively reviewing the overall demand for and supply of
services in the three Kowloon clusters and formulating service plans afresh to
meet the healthcare needs of Kowloon in the long run. As part of the review, the
evaluation and assessment of the long-term development directions of OLMH have
established that OLMH should take the role of a non-acute hospital focusing on
the provision of ambulatory healthcare services. HA will plan the redevelopment
of OLMH along this line. HA is making reference to the views of stakeholders in
updating the detailed content of the OLMH redevelopment plan so as to better
address the needs of Wong Tai Sin residents.
(5) We understand that some members of the community have expressed their views
on the way Wong Tai Sin is covered in cluster demarcation. Before the
commissioning of the Kai Tak Hospital, the Government has already set up the
Steering Committee on Review of Hospital Authority chaired by the Secretary for
Food and Health to conduct a comprehensive review of the operation of HA. The
cluster arrangement and cluster demarcation of HA are covered in the review. We
aim to improve the operation of HA through the review so that, as the
cornerstone of the public healthcare system and the safety net for the public,
HA can continue to provide quality services and meet the challenges brought
about by social development and ageing population more effectively. In the
process of review, the steering committee noted the public aspirations for
reviewing the cluster demarcation of Kowloon and will give due consideration to
stakeholders' views (including those of Wong Tai Sin District Council and Wong
Tai Sin residents). The review is expected to be completed in the first half of
2015.
Note: Since FSD started keeping data about the time interval between emergency
call and arrival at hospital by District Council district in 2012, only figures
for the past three years are available.
Ends/Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Issued at HKT 19:33
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LCQ4 Annex 1
LCQ4 Annex 2
LCQ4 Annex 3