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The Hospital Authority (HA) Board Meeting today (December 21, Thursday) discussed and endorsed the initiatives to augment obstetric and neonatal intensive care services in response to increase in service demand as well as ensuring priority service would be given to local expectant mothers.
To address the facilities limitation and manpower shortage of midwife and neonatal intensive care nurses, the following measures were endorsed in the Meeting.
Manpower shortage:
The following measures will be introduced to enhance the pool of effective midwives and neonatal intensive care nurses workforce, to boost up morale and to improve retention:
* Recruiting more nurses through multiple channels;
* Employing more supporting staff to relieve midwives and neonatal intensive care nurses from non-nursing duties;
* Reactivating overtime allowance for midwives and neonatal intensive nurses;
* Encouraging staff to go on continuous night shift to relieve the pressure of night shift on the other staff;
* Encashing leave accrued by nurses;
* Organising additional midwives training course as well as neonatal intensive care training course;
* One extra increment will also be reintroduced for midwives practising midwifery in recognition of their extra qualification.
Capacity expansion in obstetric services:
Most hospitals have been able to absorb the growth in demand through adjustment of services. Additional beds have been deployed for supporting obstetric patients. Depending on the demand, HA is ready to further expand obstetric and neonatal services as required.
Enhancement of antenatal booking system:
A central system will be put in place to facilitate and coordinate booking of local and NEP mothers for antenatal care, while priority booking will be awarded for local mothers and necessary data will be available for HA to assess the demand for obstetric services.
Education on antenatal care for local mothers:
To address community concerns that Hong Kong mothers are receiving lesser care because of the demand growth from mainland mothers, HA will continue to explain to the public that medical care including antenatal visits, investigations and post delivery hospitalisation are provided according to medical indications and will be arranged as required either at Maternity & Child Health Centres or HA clinics. A guideline to standardise antenatal care in all HA hospitals will be drawn up in three months' time.
Assurance of priority for local pregnant women:
For obstetric services, all local pregnant women are assured that they can receive antenatal care within their own residential cluster and be given priority in service provision over NEP. Where capacity is limited, HA will facilitate the booking of NEP mothers in the private sector. For neonatal services, there will be enhanced coordination on existing internal and external referral system to facilitate the evening out of workload amongst neonatal intensive care units.
Liaison with private sector:
HA will further enhance of communication and co-ordination with private sectors so that referrals and bookings can be more effectively arranged with better matching of capacity with demand. To enhance the capacity of private sector, midwife training organised by the HA will be made available to the private hospitals as well.
Fees and charges strategy:
With the rising trend of NEP deliveries in spite of the September 2005 increase in fees for NEP mothers, it is decided to further increase the fees level. The 3-day 2-night package will be increased to $39,000 for booked cases and $48,000 for non-booked cases.
"The new fees are set at differential rate for booked and non-booked cases with a view to encourage NEP mothers to seek antenatal care during the course of pregnancy. Antenatal booking also facilitates better monitoring and planning of service capacity at various public hospitals. At the same time, the fee increase aims to ensure NEP expectant mothers would not be attracted to use the public obstetric services because of financial incentives," said Mr Shane Solomon, Chief Executive of HA.
"It is hoped that through the multi-pronged approach, the service capacity in obstetric and neonatal intensive care units in public hospitals can be augmented; local mothers can be awarded with booking and service priority; the pressure of frontline staff will be alleviated; and the safety of all healthcare workers, expectant mothers and babies can be protected."
During the Meeting, Members also endorsed a series of enhanced measures for collection of medical fees in public hospitals.
HA Members also approved the appointment of Dr Leung Pak-yin as Director (Quality & Safety) of HA, a new post created in the new HA Head Office overseeing the functions of Quality and Risk Management; Infection, Emergency & Contingency; Clinical Specialty Co-ordination; and Clinical Standards & Technology Assessment.
"On behalf of HA, I welcomed Dr Leung to join us. Dr Leung is well known to many for his leadership role in developing the Centre for Health Protection as part of Hong Kong front line defence against infectious diseases over the last three years. Dr Leung demonstrated the ability to command the cooperation of various stakeholders through his excellent interpersonal skills and facilitative leadership style," added Mr Solomon.
Ends/Thursday, December 21, 2006
Issued at HKT 21:09
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