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Around 2,700 experts and professionals from Hong Kong, the Mainland and international healthcare sector have gathered at the two-day annual Hospital Authority (HA) Convention 2006 which is being held today (May 8) and tomorrow (May 9) to share innovative ideas for the improvement of the health of the community and also help shape the direction of healthcare development in the years to come.
The main theme of this year﷿s HA Convention is 䩕From Policy to Practice蒅, which is underpinned by the following sub-themes:
-Health as an investment
滰-Healthcare financing: options and equity
滰-Resources allocation and service priorities
滰-Community engagement in healthcare
The HA Convention 2006 was officially opened this morning by the Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Health, Mr Li Xi, and the Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food, Dr York Chow, at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. Accompanying the Vice-Minister and the Secretary at the Opening Ceremony are HA Chairman, Mr Anthony Wu, and the Chief Executive, Mr Shane Solomon.
In his welcoming address, Mr Wu remarked that the theme of this year﷿s Convention, 䩕From Policy to Practice蒅, had been most aptly chosen. 䩕The Hospital Authority will have to work more innovatively and collaboratively with the private sector and other partners in health. Given the diverse range of health reform topics and the presence of internationally renowned experts in this convention, I am certain that all of us will gain insightful knowledge and ideas to put our policies into practice.蒅
While thanking the Government﷿s increased subvention to and easing the budget pressure of the HA, Mr Wu said that the authority continued to face many challenges. 䩕High on the list includes the rapid advances in biomedical science with new drug discoveries and new technologies being announced almost daily. This puts tremendous cost pressure on the Authority. In addition, there is the constant threat of pandemic flu and other emerging infection. Rising demands has put additional pressure on our already very over-work staff,蒅 he said.
However, Mr Wu was confident that HA would be able to meet these challenges with a highly resilient workforce who were highly dedicated and professional. He advocated going back to basic and promoted the 䩕people first蒅 culture. 䩕I wanted our staff to feel that they are valued and respected.蒅
In delivering his Keynote Speech 䩕The Hospital Authority ﷿ The Way Forward蒅, the Authority﷿s Chief Executive, Mr Shane Solomon outlined three key directions of the way forward for HA: Modernising HA; Reducing avoidable hospitalisation; Patient choice and access.
Besides modernising the treatment methods and technologies, Mr Solomon stressed the importance of modernisation of staff roles around the concept of 䩕right function, right skill蒅. 䩕This involves taking more mundane tasks away from highly trained professionals, such as scarce doctor and nurse resources doing administrative tasks. On the other hand, possibilities for extending the scope of practice for nurses into more specialised areas need to be explored, consistent with practices in other parts of the world," Mr Solomon said.
䩕Second, facilities need to be modernised to reflect modern clinical practice, improve the patient experience, and reduce the potential for cross-infection. Investment in new, upgraded, or replacement facilities needs to be placed on a well considered Health Services Plan for Hong Kong which considers among other factors, the population distribution, future demand projections, and consolidation and rationalisation of services to achieve a critical mass.蒅
He also highlighted the importance of introducing modern management systems to make best use of public resources. Lastly, the modernisation of information technology was needed to automate clinical processes more extensively and ultimately step outside the walls of HA, into the private sector and into the hands of the patients.
On reducing avoidable hospitalisation, Mr Solomon said there was much scope to reduce demand pressures on hospitals. "Much of the reduction in hospital length of stay has been achieved by new technologies, such as minimally invasive surgery and improved anaesthetic technique, but offering alternative services in the community or in step-down facilities has played a big part,蒅 he said.
Mr Soloman said HA had made significant achievements in reducing length of stay: patients having cholecystectomy now on average stay for 5.5 days, 21% less compared to five years ago. Similarly, patients having cataract surgery performed as day case had increased by 13%. But there was still room to look further to reduce demand on hospital beds. For example, only about 60% of cataract operations are performed as day cases in HA, compared to 90% in the UK and Australia.
Mr Solomon believed that Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) was likely to have a stronger role in reducing hospitalisation through its emphasis on prevention and health restoration. HA﷿s strategy of progressive implementation of TCM in partnership with the private sector would establish the evidence-base and collaborative model to further respond to community demand for TCM.
On the third direction of patient choice and access, Mr Soloman explained thatHA itself had a role to play in expanding choices as it was clear that HA had many patients already with the capacity and willingness to pay for these additional service choices. "HA data shows that among users of HA hospitals, 23% have medical insurance or subsidy, compared with 37% in the total Hong Kong population. The top 10% of HA users have monthly incomes over $35,000 per month ﷿ that is about 200,000 of our existing patients earn more than three times the median income for all of Hong Kong.蒅
Mr Solomon was quick to add that more work needed to be done on what extra choices should be offered in HA and in expanding choice for patients. HA would need to be mindful of the wider community impacts and have adequate community debate, but the focus should remain on expanding choice for HA﷿s existing patients through both the private and public hospital systems.
䩕If more people can choose to contribute to the cost of their own care in the public hospital, then HA﷿s own scarce resources can be directed to lower income patients who are waiting long periods of time for elective surgery and only have the choice of HA,蒅 he said.
To ensure the success of the key directions, Mr Solomon believed that core values of respect, fairness, team work professionalism and innovation should be promoted.
On the forthcoming financing reform, Mr Solomon said the reform would need to create the right incentives to encourage the public to use services sensibly and take some responsibility for their own health care. The incentive should be to reinforce the most appropriate service option, which was most often at the lower end of the service continuum, for example, a primary care physician rather than an Accident & Emergency Department, or an aged care home rather than a hospital.
䩕HA is concerned to ensure patients are not denied service because of lack of financial means, so we will naturally look for a safety net which caps people﷿s out-of-pocket payments for HA services over an extended period, and this safety net needs to cover all income groups, particularly low and middle income HA users,蒅 he said.
Ends/Monday, May 8, 2006
Issued at HKT 18:07
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