The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The Chairman of the Hospital Authority (HA), Professor John Leong Chi-yan, welcomed the health-related programmes in the 2017 Policy Address delivered by the Chief Executive at the Legislative Council today (January 18), including various initiatives to further enhance public healthcare services for the upcoming challenges.
 
     Professor Leong expressed gratitude for the Government's continuous support and commitment to public hospital services. He also concurred with the need to continue strengthening services for the elderly. "Elderly services will be augmented with additional operating theatre sessions and geriatric fragility fracture co-ordination services for hip fracture patients, enhanced service provision by the Community Geriatric Assessment Team for terminally ill elderly patients in residential care homes for the elderly, and closer medical social collaboration for extending integrated discharge support for elderly patients," he said.
 
      Professor Leong added that the less privileged elderly patients will also benefit from the extension of the medical waiver to the older and financially disadvantaged Old Age Living Allowance recipients.
 
     "The HA will also enhance clinical pharmacy services and 24-hour pharmacy services by recruiting more pharmacists. As an ongoing initiative, the scope of HA Drug Formulary will be widened to enhance the efficacy of drug treatment for public hospital patients," he said.
 
     He noted that with the successful implementation of the pilot phase, two programmes will be further extended and expanded to benefit public hospital patients. "Progressively in the next five years, the 'New-born Screening for Inborn Errors of Metabolism' will be extended to cover all eight obstetric hospitals, while the 'Integrated Chinese-Western Medicine Pilot Programme' will be continued in seven public hospitals with one more disease area."
 
     Regarding the provision of psychiatric services, Professor Leong said, "Child and adolescent mental health services will be enhanced by taking forward the two-year 'Student Mental Support Pilot Scheme', while adult mental health services will be strengthened with multi-disciplinary support both for common mental disorder patients and inpatients, alongside enhancing mental health services for the elderly."

     Services for critical illnesses and chronic diseases will be continuously strengthened in addition to increasing hospital beds, operating theatre sessions, endoscopy sessions and radiology services. "The HA will continue to increase the quota for general outpatient clinics as well as the service capacity of specialist outpatient clinics and Accident & Emergency Departments to address increasing service demand," Professor Leong said.

Ends/Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Issued at HKT 16:18

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