Following is a question by the Hon Shiu Ka-chun and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (June 28):

Question:

     Regarding medical procedure for termination of pregnancy ("MPTP") performed lawfully and unlawfully, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) whether it knows the respective numbers of pregnant women who underwent MPTP at (i) Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital, (ii) Matilda International Hospital, (iii) Union Hospital and (iv) Queen Mary Hospital (QMH) in each of the past 10 years, with a breakdown by the age group to which they belonged (i.e. 12 or below, 13 to 16, 17 to 20, 21 to 25, 26 to 30, 31 to 35, 36 to 40 and 41 or above) (set out in a table);

(2) as QMH is currently the only public hospital which performs MPTP, whether the Government knows the current number of persons waiting for undergoing the medical procedure; the average and highest numbers of days for which pregnant women had waited before undergoing the medical procedure at QMH in each of the past five years;

(3) whether it knows the number of cases in which QMH refused to perform MPTP in each of the past five years, and the reasons for the refusal; the respective numbers of doctors and nurses in QMH who are currently responsible for performing the medical procedure, and the average unit cost of such procedure;

(4) of the number of cases, detected by the authorities in each of the past five years, of unlawful performance of MPTP; and

(5) whether it knows the total number of patients, who felt unwell after undergoing unlawful MPTP, received treatment in the accident and emergency departments of various public hospitals in each of the past five years?

Reply:

President,

     My reply to the Hon Shiu Ka-chun's question is as follows:
     
(1) According to section 47A (3) of the Offences Against the Person Ordinance (Cap 212) (the Ordinance), any medical procedures for termination of pregnancy (MPTP) must be carried out in a hospital or clinic maintained by the Government or declared by the Director of Health (the Director) by notice published in the Gazette to be an approved hospital or clinic for the purposes of that section. As at June 23, 2017, the approved hospitals/clinics are as follows:

Gleneagles Hong Kong Hospital
Hong Kong Adventist Hospital – Stubbs Road
Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital Limited
Kwong Wah Hospital
Matilda & War Memorial Hospital
North District Hospital
Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital
Pok Oi Hospital
Prince of Wales Hospital
Princess Margaret Hospital
Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Queen Mary Hospital
Tsan Yuk Hospital
Tseung Kwan O Hospital
Hong Kong Adventist Hospital – Tsuen Wan
Tuen Mun Hospital
Union Hospital
United Christian Hospital
The Family Planning Association of Hong Kong (Wan Chai Nursing Home)

     Under section 47A of the Ordinance, a registered medical practitioner who terminates a pregnancy are required to give notice of the termination to the Director. According to the information provided by the Department of Health (DH), the numbers of pregnancies legally terminated in Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital Limited, Matilda & War Memorial Hospital, Union Hospital and Queen Mary Hospital from 2006 to 2015 are as follows:
 

Hospital	Year
	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital Limited	1 584	1 656	1 460	1 251	1 117	1 071	1 393	1 751	1 882	1 636
Matilda & War Memorial Hospital	281	272	256	183	214	171	207	309	344	373
Union Hospital	3 067	2 993	2 733	2 506	2 332	1 937	2 419	4 281	3 774	3 305
Queen Mary Hospital	695	750	874	697	371	653	648	785	682	634

Note: Figures for 2016 are being processed and not available at the moment.

     As the DH maintains figures of legally terminated pregnancies by age group of the Hong Kong population as a whole in accordance with the United Nation's reporting format, no separate breakdown for individual hospitals is available.

     From 2006 to 2015, the figures of legally terminated pregnancies in approved hospitals or clinics by age group as mentioned above are as follows:
 

Age group	Year
	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
0 – 14	32	30	43	28	29	32	30	16	22	18
15 – 19	1 164	1 199	1 129	1 052	950	1 011	938	874	859	774
20 – 24	3 201	3 099	2 900	2 583	2 385	2 504	2 361	2 137	2 035	1 950
25 – 29	2 837	2 905	2 833	2 565	2 356	2 549	2 344	2 179	2 149	2 042
30 – 34	2 549	2 612	2 568	2 305	2 280	2 320	2 263	2 278	2 197	2 074
35 – 39	2 350	2 300	2 414	2 192	2 064	2 208	2 156	2 098	2 007	1 987
40 – 44	1 231	1 222	1 155	1 162	1 042	1 126	1 087	964	982	937
45 or above	146	148	156	141	125	114	119	107	108	108
Unknown age	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total	13 510	13 515	13 199	12 028	11 231	11 864	11 298	10 653	10 359	9 890

Note: Figures for 2016 are being processed and not available at the moment.

(2) Any public hospitals in Hong Kong that provide obstetrics and gynaecology services can perform MPTP, and Queen Mary Hospital is not the only public hospital that performs the procedure. The obstetrics and gynaecology departments of public hospitals will perform MPTP according to the clinical needs of pregnant women and in compliance with the law. The Hospital Authority (HA) does not maintain statistical record on the number of women waiting for MPTP and their respective waiting time.

(3) For providing MPTP to a pregnant woman at the obstetrics and gynaecology department of a public hospital, the pregnant woman and her foetus of less than 24 weeks of gestation must be assessed by two registered medical practitioners and both are of the opinion that continuous pregnancy will involve risk to the life of or constitute serious physical/mental health hazards to the pregnant woman, or the child would suffer from serious physical or mental abnormality if it were born. The registered medical practitioner will have to perform the MPTP in accordance with the relevant laws of Hong Kong and the case must be reported to the DH. The HA does not maintain statistical record on the number of cases in which MPTP could not be performed due to failure to meet the above requirements.

     As healthcare professionals who perform MPTP also provide clinical services for other patients, the HA does not have the breakdown of the manpower and expenditure involved in handling MPTP in public hospitals.

(4) According to the information provided by the Security Bureau, the numbers of enforcement actions taken against "administering drug or using instrument to procure abortion" under section 46 and against "procuring drug, etc., with intent to cause abortion" under section 47 of the Ordinance in the past five years are as follows: 
 

Year	Offences against the Person Ordinance Section 46 Administering drug or using instrument to procure abortion			Offences against the Person Ordinance Section 47 Procuring drug, etc., with intent to cause abortion
	Number of people arrested	Number of people prosecuted	Number of people convicted	Number of people arrested	Number of people prosecuted	Number of people convicted
2012	2	1	0	1	0	0
2013	7	1	0	1	0	0
2014	2	0	0	0	0	0
2015	0	2	2	0	1	0
2016	2	2	2	2	0	0
2017 (January-March)	3	1	1	0	0	0

Note: The arrest, prosecution and conclusion of trial in respect of individual cases may not be completed within the same year. 

(5) The HA does not maintain statistics on the number of patients attending the accident and emergency departments for follow-up treatment after undergoing unlawful MPTP.

Ends/Wednesday, June 28, 2017
Issued at HKT 13:30

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