****************************************
Following is a question by the Hon Li Kwok-ying and a reply by the Secretary For Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (January 31):
Question:
I have learnt that the Hospital Authority (HA) has decided to reduce, gradually in three months' time from January this year, a total of 75 beds, or about 20% of the beds, at Tseung Kwan O Hospital. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it knows if HA has conducted prior consultation on its above decision; if HA has done so, of the time and results of consultation; if it has not, the reasons for that;
(b) whether it knows the ratio of hospital beds to population in Tseung Kwan O after the reduction of the hospital beds, and how HA ensures that the medical services in that area will not be affected by the reduction of the hospital beds; and
(c) whether it has assessed the impact of the above decision on the expansion plans for Tseung Kwan O Hospital and Haven of Hope Hospital; if it has, of the assessment results?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) & (b) The services of the Hospital Authority (HA) are provided on a cluster basis. At present, hospitals under the Kowloon East Hospital Cluster (KE Cluster), including United Christian Hospital (UCH), Tseung Kwan O Hospital (TKOH) and Haven of Hope Hospital (HHH), provide services for residents in East Kowloon, Tseung Kwan O (TKO) and Sai Kung districts. The HA has been closely monitoring and reviewing the service utilisation within the KE Cluster, and will flexibly arrange for re-deployment of resources among the hospitals under the Cluster to ensure that adequate services are made available to meet the medical needs of the population in the area. The relevant adjustment and re-structuring of services are part of the routine internal operation of the Cluster.
For better utilisation of resources and to meet service demand and development, the KE Cluster plans to re-structure the services of TKOH, and converge convalescent service under HHH early this year. According to the re-organisation plan, TKOH will close down 38 (not 75) convalescent beds while HHH in the same district will re-deploy a similar number of beds internally to support TKOH's convalescent service. The implementation of the re-organisation plan will not affect the relevant medical services in the TKO district. The ratio of beds to population in the KE Cluster will be 2.34 beds per 1 000 population. Furthermore, the KE Cluster will adopt complementary measures to tie in with the re-structuring plan, which include enhancement of supportive services such as non-emergency ambulance service for convalescent patients as well as rationalisation of the delivery process of various hospital services.
The HA has been communicating closely with the District Councils and other local organisations regarding its provision of medical services. In respect of the re-structuring of TKOH's convalescent service, HA's Cluster Chief Executive (Kowloon East) has maintained active dialogue with the Sai Kung District Council (SKDC) and will brief the members of the SKDC on the re-structuring plan at SKDC's meeting.
(c) The KE Cluster will regularly review its services having regard to the demographic changes and increase in service demand and service utilisation within the area, while mapping out plans for the provision of facilities and services in the future. The HA is now drawing up expansion plans for TKOH, and will, in accordance with established procedures, examine these plans before submitting them to the Administration for consideration. The aforesaid plan to re-deploy TKOH's convalescent beds is aimed at rationalising the services of the KE Cluster and achieving better utilisation of resources. It will not affect the future provision of services or the work plans for TKOH and HHH.
Ends/Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:15
NNNN
