Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ15: Nursing manpower in public hospitals
Following is a question by the Hon Joseph Lee and a written reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today
(October 28):
Question:
It is learnt that quite a number of nurses working in public hospitals are close
to their retirement age, which has aroused concern about the shortage of nursing
staff. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it
knows:
(1) among the nurses currently working in public hospitals, the number and
percentage of those who will reach the retirement age in the coming five years,
with a breakdown of the estimated number of nurses retiring each year by their
rank and by the medical institution (public hospital/outpatient clinic) and
specialty to which they belong;
(2) the estimated respective numbers of vacancies of various types of nursing
posts under the Hospital Authority (HA) (i.e. enrolled nurses (general),
enrolled nurses (psychiatric), registered nurses (general) and registered nurses
(psychiatric)) in the coming five years, with a breakdown by rank and by the
medical institution and specialty to which such posts belong;
(3) the estimated respective numbers of graduates from various types of nursing
programmes in each of the coming five years, with a breakdown by course
provider; whether HA has assessed if the annual number of graduates newly
recruited is sufficient to fill the vacancies concerned; if HA has and the
outcome is in the negative, how HA will resolve that problem;
(4) whether HA has considered improving the work arrangement, such as exempting
nurses over the age of 55 from night shift duties, so as to retain talents; if
so, whether HA has assessed the additional manpower it will need to recruit for
the implementation of such a measure; if not, of the reasons for that; and
(5) given that HA is implementing the continuous night shift scheme to provide
incentive allowance for nurses to undertake continuous night shift duties so as
to reduce the frequency of their night duties, whether HA has assessed if such a
measure is conducive to retaining talents; if HA has, of the details?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the various parts of the question raised by the Hon Joseph Lee on
the manpower of public hospitals is as follows:
(1) From 2015-16 to 2019-20, a total of 1 051 full-time nurses in the Hospital
Authority (HA) will reach the retirement age of 60, representing about 4.4% of
the total number of nurses. The distribution of the above-mentioned retiring
nurses by cluster is set out in Annex 1.
(2) Nursing vacancies mainly arise from natural wastages and the creation of
additional posts for meeting new service demand. From 2012-13 to 2014-15, the
overall turnover rate of nurses was maintained at 4.7% to 4.9%. The average
turnover rates of general nurses and psychiatric nurses were about 5% and 2.8%
respectively. The HA projected that there would be about 950 to 1 000 general
nurse vacancies and about 70 to 80 psychiatric nurse vacancies generated by
staff turnover in 2015-16.
As regards the additional nursing manpower required for delivering new services
each year, the manpower requirements of the HA are projected by taking into
account the estimated staff turnover, market supply, manpower requirement for
new services and financial position. After formulating the manpower requirements
according to its annual plan, the HA will make adjustments with regard to the
supply and demand of nurses. Hence, figures on the specific manpower
requirements cannot be provided at the moment. On the operational front, the HA
will deploy nursing staff flexibly in the provision of existing and new
healthcare services. As such, it cannot provide the estimated number of nursing
vacancies in respect of individual healthcare service programme or specialty.
(3) The number of training places of pre-service nursing programmes for the five
academic years from 2015-16 to 2019-20 is set out in Annex 2.
There is still a general shortage of healthcare manpower currently. The HA will
continue to implement various measures through different means to increase
nursing manpower and retain staff, with a view to relieving the manpower
pressure. The measures include recruiting additional staff, improving promotion
prospects, upgrading the proficiency of nursing graduates, providing more
training opportunities, increasing the training subsidy provided for registered
nurses, supporting the career development of enrolled nurses, enhancing the
continuous night shift scheme and improving work arrangements. The HA will also
update its projection of service demand and manpower requirements every two or
three years.
There will be 367, 370, 395 and 400 nursing graduates from placement training in
the respective years from 2015-16 to 2018-19. It is expected that the overall
nursing manpower situation will be improved then. The HA will continue to
monitor closely the manpower situation of nurses and make suitable arrangements
in manpower planning and deployment to cope with service needs.
(4)and (5) The HA at this stage has no plan to exempt nurses aged over 55 from
night shift duties. However, it has implemented the continuous night shift
scheme which helps to reduce the frequency of night shifts. Nurses aged over 55
can benefit from the scheme. The continuous night shift scheme was implemented
in May 1994 to improve the shift and rest periods of nurses. Since then,
continuous efforts have been made to improve the night shift arrangement and the
rate of allowance. The rate of allowance was further increased in 2015 to
provide better compensation for nurses who undertake continuous night shift
duties. Our aim is to reduce the frequency of night shift duties of nurses to
not more than once in every seven days as far as practicable. In 2014-15, there
were 1 897 nurses participating in the scheme. The HA will continue to consider
different feasible options to improve the working environment and benefits of
nurses.
Ends/Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Issued at HKT 17:21
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LCQ15 Annex 1
LCQ15 Annex 2