Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ9: Medical equipment of public hospitals

Following is a question by the Dr Hon Leung Ka-lau and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (May 20):

Question:

Regarding the services of computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound scan, mammogram and positron emission tomography (collectively referred to as diagnostic radiology) provided by public hospitals, will the Government inform this Council if it knows:

(1) the respective numbers of pieces of diagnostic radiology equipment in various acute hospitals in the past five years, and the respective average service periods of such equipment;

(2) whether the Hospital Authority (HA) has any mechanism in place for making decisions on purchasing and phasing out diagnostic radiology equipment; if HA does, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;

(3) the respective (i) person-times and (ii) waiting time of 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentile for each type of diagnostic radiology services in each acute hospital in each of the past five years; and

(4) as HA has implemented the Pilot Project on Enhancing Radiological Investigation Services through Collaboration with the Private Sector since May 2012 to provide full subsidy to patients from selected cancer groups to receive CT and MRI examinations provided by designated private service providers, whether HA has any plan to extend the pilot project to include other types of examination services (e.g. ultrasound scan and mammogram), provide examination services to eligible patients suffering from other illnesses, and increase the service quotas?

Reply:

President,

The Hospital Authority (HA) procures and upgrades suitable medical equipment from time to time. Radio-diagnostic examinations are conducted according to patients' clinical conditions. Priority will be given to patients who are in urgent condition and the majority of such patients can receive examination within 24 hours. HA will review its operation and services in a timely manner to further improve the healthcare services provided to the public. My reply to the various parts of the question is as follows:

(1) The number and average age of the equipment used by HA for diagnostic radiology are set out in the table below:

2013-14 2014-15
------- -------
Equipment             Number         Average         Number         Average
                                                      age                                      age
---------                 ------               -------         ------              -------
Computerised              29                        5              30                      5
tomography (CT)
Magnetic                     16                        5               17                     5
resonance imaging
(MRI)
Ultrasound scanner      99                        7             103                     7
in X-ray department
Mammography            14                        4               14                     5
Positron emission           2                        6                 2                     7
tomography (PET)

Note: HA has maintained statistics on the number and average age of the above equipment since 2013-14.

(2) HA procures and upgrades suitable medical equipment from time to time to meet its operational requirements so as to provide quality healthcare services for the community. The management of hospital clusters formulates the annual plan on medical equipment demand, taking into factors such as potential risks (including obsolescence risk, equipment age, safety of patients and staff, etc.), impacts on care for patients, operational needs, HA's overall service strategies, and advice from healthcare professionals and relevant overseas institutions.

(3) The person-time of diagnostic radiology services undertaken in HA is at Annex 1. The lower quartile (25th percentile), median (50th percentile), upper quartile (75th percentile) and the longest (90th percentile) waiting time for patients of diagnostic radiology services in each hospital cluster of HA is at Annex 2.

(4) To enhance radiological investigation services, HA implemented the Pilot Project on Enhancing Radiological Investigation Services through Collaboration with the Private Sector in May 2012. Full subsidy has been provided for patients with clinical needs from selected cancer groups so that they could choose to receive CT and/or MRI scans in the private sector. As at March 2015, more than 19 500 scans have been performed under the project. In view of the positive response, HA has increased the number of cancer groups eligible for the project since May 2014 from four (including colorectal cancer, breast cancer, nasopharyngeal cancer and lymphoma) to 11 (the others include prostate cancer, stomach cancer, corpus uteri cancer, cervix cancer, head and neck cancer, sarcoma and germ cell tumour). HA has also extended the project for two years till May 2017. There is currently no plan to further expand the project.

Ends/Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Issued at HKT 16:38

NNNN

LCQ9 Annex 1
LCQ9 Annex 2