Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ16 : Participation of Hospital Authority staff in the Course on National Affairs
Following is a question by Dr the Hon Leung Ka-lau and a written reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today
(June 8):
Question:
On the 20th of April this year, the authorities replied to my question on the
Course on National Affairs for staff of the Hospital Authority (HA). In this
connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) given that according to the aforesaid reply, the contents of the Course on
National Affairs included lectures given by Mainland scholars and officials on
national systems and policies in different areas such as healthcare reform and
visits to healthcare institutions on the Mainland, and the junior doctors
attended the Course on National Affairs on this occasion were mainly responsible
for frontline clinical work, whether the authorities know the benefits, gained
by junior doctors through attending the Course on National Affairs, on their
clinical work; given that they came from different specialties, how such a
course of visits and exchanges of a general nature can effectively raise their
professional competence;
(2) whether it knows if it is the aim of HA to provide administrative training
for junior doctors through the Course on National Affairs; if so, why HA has not
recommended junior doctors to attend some basic administrative training courses
which are normally arranged for healthcare personnel, such as the "Management
101" training programme, and instead chosen the Course on National Affairs for
them, as well as of the administrative training courses (other than the Course
on National Affairs) which HA recommended its junior doctors to attend in the
past five years;
(3) given that the authorities have listed in the reply the Ministry of Health
of Singapore, Hospital for Sick Children of Canada, Australian Council on
Healthcare Standards, International Society for Quality in Health Care,
International Hospital Federation, Healthcare Information and Management Systems
Society in Singapore, overseas and local universities, Hong Kong Academy of
Medicine and various specialist groups as the HA's training partners and the
organisations with which HA conducted exchange activities in recent years, but
the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region, the organiser of the Course on National Affairs, is the
representative organisation of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region, and the nature of its operation is totally
different from that of the aforesaid healthcare organisations, whether the
authorities know the criteria adopted by HA for deciding to accept the staff
training sponsorship offered by such official political organisations, and
whether HA accepted sponsorship offered by other political organisations in the
past five years; and
(4) as it has been reported that the doctors concerned were granted special paid
study leave when attending the one-week Course on National Affairs and those
leave days would not be deducted from the total number of days of paid study
leave which they were entitled to (total leave days), but junior doctors are
only granted a maximum of 1.5 days of paid study leave each time when they
attend professional qualifications examinations and the days of study leave
granted for them to participate in academic exchange activities or refresher
courses are required to be deducted from their total leave days, whether the
authorities know why junior doctors, when attending the Course on National
Affairs which was not directly related to their clinical work, could enjoy
special treatment?
Reply:
President,
Our consolidated reply to the various parts of the question raised by Dr the Hon
Leung Ka-lau relating to the participation of Hospital Authority (HA) staff in
the Course on National Affairs is as follow:
The HA makes arrangements for its staff to participate in various training
programmes and exchange visits. The training received by medical practitioners
includes both clinical and non-clinical training with a wide scope of content.
In order to meet operational needs, the HA has been providing Residents, newly
promoted Associate Consultants and staff of equivalent rank of other grades with
non-clinical training programmes on leadership, management skills, team
building, on-the-job coaching, communication skills, etc. In the past five
years, some 1 000 Residents participated in the HA's non-clinical training
programmes.
The Course on National Affairs is neither a clinical training nor a specialist
training for medical practitioners. Instead, it is one of the non-clinical
training programmes, which aims at enhancing participants' understanding of the
Mainland's systems and policies in various aspects, including Mainland's
healthcare system. Visits to healthcare institutions in the Mainland are also
arranged in this course.
As regards those training programmes involving an institution's nomination or
recommendation, under HA's existing human resources policy, the HA will offer
assistance in the form of financial sponsorship or study leave to its staff to
facilitate their participation in activities which suit their training and
development needs. When considering staff's applications for training and the
granting of financial sponsorship, the HA mainly takes into account factors such
as relevance of the training to the career development of the staff, whether the
training is for the benefit of services for patients, etc.. The HA adopts the
same approach when handling the nomination of its staff for the Course on
National Affairs and those training programmes involving other institutions'
nomination or recommendation.
The HA's acceptance of sponsorship from any institutions (including national
government agencies in the Mainland, overseas or local universities and
international institutions) is subject to approval according to HA's guidelines
on "Acceptance of Advantages, Entertainment and Sponsorship". The guidelines set
out the general criteria for considering whether to accept the sponsorship, for
example, whether acceptance of the sponsorship will give rise to actual or
perceived conflict of interest and will cause disrepute to the HA, whether the
sponsorship is for the benefit of services for patients and whether the amount
of sponsorship is reasonable, etc.. HA has all along been based on the said
criteria in considering whether to accept the sponsorship from various
institutions.
Ends/Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Issued at HKT 15:37
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