Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ10: General outpatient clinics of Hospital Authority
Following is a question by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung and a written reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today
(June 10):
Question:
Recently, quite a number of residents of the Tsuen Wan and Kwai Tsing (Tsuen
Kwai) districts have relayed to me that there is a shortfall in the daily
consultation quotas available for advance booking at the public general
out-patient clinics (clinics) in the districts. They have also pointed out that,
with the completion of new public housing blocks in the Tsuen Kwai districts one
after another in the coming few years, the population of the two districts will
increase significantly, aggravating the burden on the public healthcare system
in these districts. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it knows the consultation quotas of the various clinics in the Tsuen
Kwai districts in each of the past three years (set out in the table below);
Clinic
2012 2013 2014
Ha Kwai Chung General
Out-patient Clinic
Mrs Wu York Yu General
Out-patient Clinic
North Kwai Chung General
Out-patient Clinic
South Kwai Chung Jockey Club
General Out-patient Clinic
Tsing Yi Cheung Hong General
Out-patient Clinic
Tsing Yi Town General
Out-patient Clinic
Lady Trench General Out-patient
Clinic
Yan Chai Hospital General
Practice Clinic
(2) whether it knows (i) the average daily number of attendances and (ii) the
average consultation time per patient in respect of each of the clinics set out
in (1) last year (set out in table form);
(3) whether it knows the unused quotas of each of the clinics set out in (1) in
each month of last year (set out in table form);
(4) whether it knows the factors considered by the Hospital Authority (HA) in
setting the daily consultation quotas to be allocated by various clinics, and
how the number of doctors actually staffed at the clinics on a particular day
affects the consultation quotas that day; whether there is a mechanism to review
if such quotas are sufficient to meet the demand; if so, of the details, and how
often such a review is conducted; and
(5) whether it will request HA, apart from uploading the relevant information
onto its web site, to announce the consultation quotas and unused quotas of
various clinics each day by other means (e.g. by posting notices at various
clinics or through the existing General Out-patient Clinics Telephone
Appointment System), so that members of the public may identify more quickly the
clinics at which treatment services are available?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the question raised by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung is as follows:
(1) Primary care services in Hong Kong are provided mainly by the private
sector. In the public sector, the general outpatient clinics (GOPCs) of the
Hospital Authority (HA) are primarily targeted at serving the elderly, the
low-income group and the chronically ill. In 2014-15, the 73 GOPCs under HA
recorded a total of over 5.9 million attendances (provisional figure).
Patients under the care of HA's GOPCs comprise two major categories, namely
chronic disease patients with stable medical conditions (such as those with
diabetes mellitus or hypertension) and episodic disease patients with relatively
mild symptoms (such as those suffering from influenza, cold and
gastroenteritis). Episodic disease patients can book, through HA's telephone
appointment system, consultation timeslots at GOPCs for the next 24 hours. As
for chronic disease patients requiring follow-up consultations, they will be
assigned a visit timeslot after each consultation and do not need to call to
make separate appointments.
HA has been taking active steps to improve its GOPC services, including
renovating and upgrading the facilities of ageing clinics to streamline patient
flow, improve the waiting environment for patients and increase the space for
consultation, thereby meeting the development needs of general outpatient (GOP)
services. In respect of the eight GOPCs in Kwai Tsing and Tsuen Wan districts,
the HA has completed/is carrying out the following improvement works –
(a) partial improvement works of the North Kwai Chung GOPC was completed in
2012-13;
(b) total interior renovation of the Ha Kwai Chung GOPC was completed in
2013-14;
(c) expansion of the South Kwai Chung Jockey Club GOPC is underway with a view
to providing more consultation rooms;
(d) reprovisioning of the General Practice Clinic of the Yan Chai Hospital was
completed in February 2015, as part of the hospital's redevelopment project, to
improve its clinic environment and increase service capacity; and
(e) HA is planning for a total interior renovation of the Lady Trench GOPC in
2015-16 to improve its quality of service.
With various measures, HA provided more than 500 000 additional attendances in
the period from 2012-13 to 2014-15. The Kowloon West Cluster alone recorded an
increase of over 100 000 attendances in the same period and this is expected to
further increase by about 16 000 in 2015-16.
The number of consultation quotas of the eight GOPCs under HA in Kwai Tsing and
Tsuen Wan districts in the past three years are listed in Annex 1.
(2) and (3) The usage of GOP services is always a concern for HA. Through the
telephone appointment system, consultation quotas of different GOPCs are now
pooled together in a network so that patients do not need to visit clinics in
person to queue for an appointment. Moreover, the system can optimise the use of
consultation quotas within a district.
However, in the case that a patient cancels his/her booking only shortly before
the scheduled consultation timeslot, even though the telephone appointment
system can release the quota for booking immediately, it is unlikely for the
quota to be taken up by other patients because they may not be able to come to
the GOPC concerned within a short period of time. As a result, some quotas will
be left unused. In view of this, HA has developed a mechanism for reducing quota
wastage caused by patients who do not show up. For patients who make their
booking through the telephone appointment system, their use of the telephone
appointment services will be suspended if they fail to attend an appointment
without prior cancellation for three separate occasions within two months. These
patients have to visit the clinics in person to go through necessary procedures
should they wish to continue using GOP services in future. This can effectively
address the problem of patients failing to show up for scheduled consultations.
In 2014-15, the total number of medical attendance at the GOPCs in Kwai Tsing
and Tsuen Wan districts are 360 000 and 200 000 respectively.
As regards the average number of unused quotas of each GOPC in Kwai Tsing and
Tsuen Wan districts, taking into account that the service capacity of the GOPCs
concerned is relatively stable, the relevant figures for the last four weeks of
December 2014 (i.e. from December 1 to 28, 2014) are set out in the Annex 2 for
reference.
(4) Given the large volume of GOP services provided by HA, the consultation
quota may vary among the 73 clinics due to their location and operation. The
daily service capacity of a GOPC is subject to slight adjustments having regard
to manpower availability and operational needs. However, the service capacity of
these clinics is relatively stable.
Recognising that there is an increasing demand for GOP services in the
community, the operation of GOPCs and usage of services have always been a
concern for HA. Over the years, HA has been monitoring regularly the percentage
of target users who secure a consultation timeslot successfully through the
telephone appointment system, so as to get a more thorough understanding of the
service demand. On the whole, over 90 per cent of patients could secure a
consultation timeslot at GOPCs in 2014. The situation of Kwai Tsing and Tsuen
Wan districts is in line with HA's overall figures.
HA will continue to closely monitor the effectiveness of various measures for
improving the provision of GOP services. HA will continue to recruit more staff
whilst the situation regarding shortage of doctors persists. Where manpower and
resources allow, the service capacity of its GOPCs will be further increased for
the purpose of providing appropriate primary care services for targeted users of
GOPCs.
(5) Having regard to the trend in recent years that more and more people
(including the elderly and/or their families) search for information on the
Internet, HA has been enriching the information on GOP services available from
its website, including the provision of brief description of GOP services and
clinic information, for reference by members of the public.
HA has recently made available on its website consultation quota of the clinics,
so that members of the public can have a better understanding of GOP services
without visiting the clinics in person. The website provides the average number
of quota of each GOPC in the preceding four weeks by districts and the
information is updated on a weekly basis. The information allows the public to
have a better idea of the general service capacity of each clinic, which
facilitates their search of a suitable clinic near their residence or work
place.
HA appreciates that episodic disease patients are concerned about the quota of
the clinics. Therefore, the telephone appointment system has built in a number
of features to cater for their need. For example, the system will, subject to
the availability of remaining quotas, allocate the earliest available
consultation timeslot to the caller on a sequential basis. When a particular
clinic has run out of consultation timeslots, the system will automatically
locate the remaining quotas of other clinics nearby and alert the caller
accordingly. The system will give the caller a clear indication when quota is
available only in one timeslot. If the clinic in question and those nearby have
run out of consultation timeslots, the system will immediately inform the caller
that the quota is full.
Ends/Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Issued at HKT 16:52
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LCQ 10 Annex 1
LCQ 10 Annex 2