Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ2: Meeting service demand during influenza winter surge
Following is a question by the Professor Hon Joseph Lee and a reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, in the Legislative Council
today (November 29):
Question:
It has been reported that during the two weeks from the end of last month to
early this month, the medical inpatient bed occupancy rates of a number of
public hospitals exceeded 100 per cent. Given that the winter surge of influenza
will soon arrive, some healthcare personnel have anticipated that the
overcrowding situation in public hospitals will worsen. In this connection, will
the Government inform this Council, whether it knows, in each week of the past
two months:
(1) in respect of each acute hospital, the attendance of emergency services, the
average waiting time for patients at the accident and emergency (A&E)
department, the number of A&E patients diagnosed to be in need of
hospitalisation for continued treatment, and the average waiting time for them
to be admitted to the wards; and
(2) the bed occupancy rates and the numbers of nurses in the specialties of
various public hospitals, with a tabulated breakdown by department; given that
the Hospital Authority will recruit more nurses in this financial year to cope
with the service demand during the winter surge of influenza, the latest
progress of the recruitment exercise?
Reply:
President,
My reply to various parts of the question raised by the Professor Hon Joseph Lee
is as follows:
(1) In the period between September 4 and October 29, 2017, the average daily
attendance at various accident and emergency (A&E) departments of the Hospital
Authority (HA) and the average waiting time for A&E patients of different triage
categories analysed on a weekly basis are set out respectively at Annexes 1 and
2. The in-patient admissions via A&E departments at hospitals providing A&E
services and the average waiting time for admission analysed on a weekly basis
for the same period are set out at Annexes 3 and 4 respectively.
(2) Generally speaking, the HA arranges clinical services for patients on a
cluster basis. The patient journey may involve different healthcare units within
the same cluster. Hence, service indicators such as in-patient bed occupancy
rate at cluster level instead of at hospital level can better reflect the actual
service utilisation.
The weekly in-patient bed occupancy rates of the major specialties under each
cluster from September 4 to October 29, 2017 are set out at Annex 5. The numbers
of full-time equivalent nurses in major specialties under each cluster as at
September 30 and October 31, 2017 are set out at Annex 6.
Over the years, the public healthcare system has been facing the problem of
nursing manpower shortage. With the increasing service demand from an ageing
population, frontline nursing staff are under tremendous work pressure. The HA
has kept on recruiting full-time and part-time nursing staff and taking
pro-active action to employ suitable candidates. The number of HA nurses
increased from 23 791 in 2014-15 to 24 980 in 2016-17, with an average net
increase of 594.5 per year.
With a recent increase in the supply of nursing manpower, the shortage of
frontline staff has been relieved slightly. However, the supply of nursing
manpower is still tight on the whole. In the past few years, the HA has
introduced a series of measures to retain talent, including employing retired
nursing staff, increasing training and promotion opportunities, employing
additional ward clerks and assistants to share out the clerical work and assist
nurses in taking care of patients, and improving the work environment, etc.
In addition, to address manpower shortage, the HA has also launched the Special
Honorarium Scheme to allow greater flexibility in increasing manpower for coping
with service demand surges. In order to encourage more colleagues to join the
scheme, the HA will convert some of the extra working sessions from the standard
four-hour into two-hour or more during the winter surge this year, thereby
making the scheme more flexible.
The HA plans to recruit 2 130 nurses in 2017-18 to meet service demand,
including that arises during the influenza winter surge. So far, good progress
has been made in the recruitment exercise. A total of 1 607 full-time nurses
have been employed as at the end of October, with nearly 75 per cent of the
target met. Besides, 1 258 Temporary Undergraduate Nursing Students have also
been employed.
Ends/Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Issued at HKT 16:05
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LCQ2 Annex 1-6