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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Hospital Authority (HA) Board discussed and endorsed at its administrative and operational meeting today (October 22) the action plan for the recommendations of the Steering Committee on Review of the Hospital Authority (the committee). Over 100 concrete action items will be implemented gradually in the coming three years. The endorsed Action Plan has been submitted to the Secretary for Food and Health (SFH).
The committee announced its review report in July this year with 10 recommendations on five priority areas in the HA's operation. The HA Board has set up a task force to follow up and formulate implementation action plan for submission to the Government.
The HA Chairman, Professor John Leong, said at a press conference today after the meeting that in the past three months, the task force held four intensive meetings to consider and deliberate on detailed action plan proposals on each of the recommendations. He is confident that the HA will implement and launch all the measures in the coming three years.
"With the HA approaching its 25th anniversary, it is a good opportunity to consolidate our experience and to map out our future enhancements," Professor Leong said.
"In formulating the action plan, we have adopted a strategic approach. Firstly, we have set specific targets for each of the actions to focus on individual issues and relevant details. Secondly, each recommendation has a set of corresponding actions, and every action plan contains a key strategy encompassing a specific target, implementation roadmap and timeframe. With these specific plans and targets, we will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the action plans and the required follow up actions."
Professor Leong expressed heartfelt appreciation to the members of the task force and the staff who have contributed to the formulation of the action plan. He is also grateful to the guidance and leadership of the SFH and the Food and Health Bureau. He said the HA is committed to upholding high transparency and public accountability and will report to the public as well as the SFH on the progress of implementation of the action plan regularly in the next three years.
In the action plan announced today, over 100 action items are outlined corresponding to the 10 recommendations on the five key areas in the review report. One of the main focuses of the action plan is the regrouping of Kowloon Central Cluster and Kowloon West Cluster. After regrouping, the difference in population sizes of the two clusters would be narrowed down, while the situation of cross-clusters utilisation would also be improved. Additional topping up funding will also be given to three hospital clusters of Kowloon East, New Territories East and New Territories West to help address known deficiencies in their service capacity.
On resource management of the clusters, a refined population-based resource allocation model will be developed, and the healthcare utilisation of local communities will be analysed to study cross-cluster flow patterns. Time trend analysis of cluster resources need and utilisation will also be performed.
For shortening of waiting time of Specialty Outpatients Clinics, the HA would strengthen the service of Family Medicine Specialty Clinic to receive routine Orthopaedic specialist outpatient cases as Orthopaedics still remains one of the specialties with long waiting time. Another pressure area is Psychiatry waiting time, and the HA will also enhance the services given to patients with Common Mental Disorder (CMD) like those with mild or stable symptoms of depression or anxiety by applying multi-disciplinary treatment model. The HA will pilot a corporate-coordinated cross-cluster booking for suitable patient with CMD from other clusters to be attended at the new CMD clinic of Kowloon West Cluster to shorten the waiting time of other patients.
Ends/Thursday, October 22, 2015
Issued at HKT 22:04
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