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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 (January 27):
Question:
Regarding medical complaints and claims of medical negligence received by the Hospital Authority (HA), will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(1) the number of claims of medical negligence received by each public hospital in each of the past five years (i.e. from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2015), and set out a breakdown by case type in tables of the same format as Table 1;
(2) among the complaints handled by each public hospital in each of the past five years, the number of cases which were found to be substantiated and needed follow-up actions, the respective numbers of cases in which different types of healthcare personnel (i.e. doctors, nurses and allied health professionals) involved were punished and the forms of punishment they received, and set out a breakdown of those cases by type and rank of such personnel in tables of the same format as Table 2;
(3) given that complainants may appeal to the Public Complaints Committee (PCC) of HA against the decisions made by public hospitals in respective of their complaints, the number of such appeal cases received by PCC in each of the past five years; among them, the number of those found to be substantiated or partly substantiated (set out in Table 3);
(4) the number of claims of medical negligence in each of the past five years, broken down by different handling methods/results (set out in Table 4);
(5) the number of claims for which compensation was paid to the patients concerned or their families by HA in each of the past five years, and the respective total amounts of compensation paid and relevant costs incurred for various types of claims (set out in Table 5); and
(6) given that the target response time set by HA for handling complaints is within six weeks (for complex cases, within three months), while that by PCC is within three to six months (possibly longer time for complex cases), among the complaints received by each public hospital and by PCC in each of the past five years, the respective numbers of those in which such targets were not met (set out in Table 6); and the reasons for failure to meet the targets?
Reply:
President,
The Hospital Authority (HA) has a two-tier system to handle complaints from patients and the public. The first tier is at the hospital level which covers the handling of all complaints lodged for the first time. If the complainants are not satisfied with the outcome of the complaint, they may appeal to the second tier, that is the Public Complaints Committee (PCC) of HA. PCC is a committee established under the HA Board responsible for independently considering and deciding on all appeal cases and putting forward recommendations on service improvement to HA. Members of PCC are not employees of HA and, by virtue of their independent status, will handle all complaints fairly and impartially. My reply to various parts of the question raised by the Dr Hon Leung Ka-lau on the medical complaints and claims arising from medical incidents received by HA is as follows:
(1) HA has not classified the cases of claims arising from medical incidents by nature. Table 7 sets out the number of claims received by HA by cluster in the past five years.
(2) One of the main objectives of HA's complaint mechanism is to, during the course of complaint handling, help resolve problems for the complainants and improve service delivery. Hence, when HA handles the cases, the emphasis is not on whether the cases are substantiated. In fact, whenever room for improvement in the delivery of service is identified in the handling of complaints, HA will take appropriate follow-up actions irrespective of whether the cases are substantiated or not. HA does not keep statistics on whether the complaint cases handled at the first-tier level are substantiated or not.
HA has put in place an established mechanism to handle disciplinary matters of its staff. Disciplinary actions taken are not confined to cases relating to medical complaints and claims. HA will consider the seriousness of the incidents and take appropriate disciplinary actions. Such disciplinary actions include counselling, verbal or written warnings, and dismissal for cases of gross misconduct.
HA does not maintain statistics on disciplinary actions by type and by rank of staff. Table 8 sets out the number of disciplinary actions taken by HA in the past five year.
(3) Table 9 sets out the statistics on the appeal cases handled by PCC of HA in the past five years.
(4) and (5) Table 10 set out the statistics on cases of claims received by HA in respect of medical incidents in the past five years.
(6) The hospitals and PCC will, upon receipt of the complaint cases, handle them as soon as possible. As each case varies in complexity, the time required for handling individual cases is different.
Some complaint cases cannot be concluded within the target response time possibly because of the involvement of several hospitals or several departments within a hospital in the case, the need for multiple clarification or evidence collection during investigation, the involvement of complex clinical management in the case, or the need to seek advice from independent medical experts.
Table 11 sets out the number of complaint cases handled by PCC and HA by clusters that were completed beyond the target response time.
Ends/Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Issued at HKT 17:23
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