LCQ22: Manpower planning of and training for allied health professionals
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Question:
The Report of Strategic Review on Healthcare Manpower Planning and Professional Development released last year put forward a number of recommendations on future healthcare manpower planning in Hong Kong, including making better use of the self-financing sector in the provision of healthcare training to help meet the increasing demand in Hong Kong for manpower in the various healthcare professions. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) in each of the past five years, of (i) the respective attendances of inpatients and outpatients for the various allied health services at public hospitals under the Hospital Authority (HA), and (ii) the number of new outpatients waiting for such services and their average waiting times;
(2) of the (i) number of post, (ii) number of vacancy and (iii) wastage rate in respect of each allied health grade within the establishment of the public sector in each of the past five years (with a breakdown by HA and each relevant government department);
(3) given that the Government is implementing a number of healthcare improvement measures, including implementing the Pilot Scheme on Residential Care Service Voucher for the Elderly, strengthening district-level primary healthcare services, extending the scope of the Visiting Medical Practitioner Scheme to cover privately-run residential care homes for persons with disabilities, providing more allied health professionals at special schools, and achieving the objective of "zero-waiting time" for on-site pre-school rehabilitation services, whether it has assessed the additional manpower demand for each allied health grade to be brought about by the implementation of the various measures;
(4) whether it knows the following information in respect of the bachelor's degree and master's degree programmes in occupational therapy and physiotherapy currently offered by the various institutions: (i) name of institution, (ii) name of programme, (iii) number of places, (iv) entrance requirements, (v) ratio of full-time teachers to students, (vi) number of practicum hours, (vii) tuition fees, and (viii) unit costs (with a breakdown by whether the programmes are publicly funded or self-financed);
(5) given that the Hong Kong Polytechnic University has, since 2012, launched two-year master's degree programmes separately in occupational therapy and physiotherapy on a self-financing basis, and the Social Welfare Department (SWD) has implemented a training sponsorship scheme to provide funding support for non- governmental organisations (NGOs) to sponsor the tuition fees for students recruited by these NGOs and the sponsored students must work for the NGOs concerned for at least two years after graduation, in respect of each of these programmes in each academic year since the implementation of the sponsorship scheme, of the (i) number of sponsored places and the amount of sponsorship approved, and (ii) number of graduates serving in the NGOs concerned under the sponsorship conditions; the respective numbers of sponsored places and the amounts of sponsorship approved under such programmes in the next academic year as estimated by SWD; and
(6) whether it knows the following information on the academic and professional accreditation conducted for self-financing degree programmes in occupational therapy and physiotherapy:
(i) the respective numbers of meetings held by the boards of the relevant professionals and the attendance rates of their members, in each of the past five years;
(ii) the names of the accreditation committees, their memberships and the organisations for which their members work, as well as the time needed for the tasks at various accreditation stages;
(iii) the accreditation criteria currently adopted by the various accreditation committees, and the professional organisations consulted prior to the formulation of the accreditation criteria and procedure;
(iv) in respect of programmes that have not been granted pre-launch accreditation, the measures to ensure the early announcement of the accreditation results, so as to reduce the number of students who have to bear the risks of not being qualified for registration as a result of the programmes they enrolled for not being accredited;
(v) the respective provisions and ordinances pursuant to which self-financing, publicly funded and non-local programmes as well as their graduates are required to apply for registration, and the criteria for making the relevant arrangements;
(vi) whether licensing examination with professional accreditation will be introduced; if so, of the timetable; if not, the reasons for that; and
(vii) whether the relevant accreditation committees will make reference to the practices of the Nursing Council of Hong Kong and upload various information such as the content of the handbook for accreditation of training institutions and the progress of accreditation of the relevant training onto the Internet for public access, so that those interested in enrolling for the relevant programmes can learn about the accreditation arrangements for such programmes; if so, of the details (including the timetable); if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the six parts of the question raised by the Hon Ip Kin-yuen is as follows:
(1) The respective allied health attendances of in-patients and out-patients for occupational therapy, physiotherapy and optometry services under the Hospital Authority (HA), and the numbers of allied health out-patients new cases and the average waiting time for such services in the past five years are set out at Annex I.
Owing to the nature of the allied health services of radiographers/radiotherapists and medical laboratory technologists, the HA does not keep statistics on the attendances of in-patients and out-patients, the number of new cases and the average waiting time for such services.
(2) The number of posts, number of vacancies and wastage rate in respect of each allied health grade within the establishment of the public sector (including the HA, the Department of Health, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) and the Correctional Services Department) in each of the past five years are set out at Annex II.
(3) The Government published in 2017 the Report of Strategic Review on Healthcare Manpower Planning and Professional Development (the Strategic Review). The Strategic Review preliminarily covers 13 healthcare professions that are subject to statutory registration, including occupational therapists, physiotherapists, medical laboratory technologists, optometrists and radiographers.
The Strategic Review adopted 2015 as the base year to project the manpower demand based on the existing service level and model, having regard to the known shortage of healthcare professionals in the public and subvented sectors as at the end of 2015 (e.g. the shortfalls of about 300 doctors and about 600 nurses in the HA at the end of 2015) and the demand for healthcare professionals arising from policy initiatives, including the latest development of public and private hospitals, as well as the known and planned projects in the public and subvented sectors.
The utilisation of services in the social welfare sector (including programmes for elderly and rehabilitation services) and the education sector (including programmes for special education services) has also been taken into account in projecting the demand for various healthcare professionals, such as the service support for children in need in special schools, care support services for persons in need including tetraplegic patients, persons with disabilities and persons with autism as well as their parents/carers, the pilot scheme on community support services for elderly persons suffering from dementia. In addition, in projecting the demand for dentists, dental initiatives introduced by the Government have been taken into account, including the Outreach Dental Care Programme for the Elderly, the Community Care Fund Elderly Dental Assistance Programme and the Dental Service for People with Intellectual Disability. In projecting the demand for pharmacists, the enhanced clinical pharmacy services of the HA have been taken into consideration.
(4) Information about the bachelor's degree and master's degree programmes in occupational therapy and physiotherapy currently offered by various institutions is at Annex III.
(5) (i) Details of the SWD's Training Sponsorship Scheme for two-year entry level Master in Occupational Therapy and Master in Physiotherapy programmes provided by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on a self-financing basis are at Annex IV.
(ii) Students of the first and second cohorts graduated in January 2014 and January 2016 respectively. The numbers of graduates serving in non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as required by the Training Sponsorship Scheme are at Annex V.
(6) The Occupational Therapists Board and the Physiotherapists Board are statutory bodies established under the Supplementary Medical Professions Council (SMPC) under section 5 of the Supplementary Medical Professions Ordinance (Cap. 359) (the Ordinance). Their statutory functions include ensuring that practising occupational therapists or physiotherapists are qualified for registration, and meet adequate standards of professional practice and professional conduct to safeguard public health.
(i) The numbers of meetings held by the two Boards and the attendance rates of their members in each of the past five years are at Annex VI.
(ii), (iii) and (iv) The Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications conducts quality assurance accreditation for programmes conducted by non-self-accrediting institutions. For those programmes provided for healthcare professions that are subject to statutory registration, professional accreditation by the SMPC and the Boards concerned are also required. This is to ensure that all graduates have obtained the qualifications for registration in their respective profession. To this end, the SMPC developed in 2013 a Handbook on Accreditation of Educational Programmes for the Purpose of Registration as Supplementary Medical Professions Practitioners (the Handbook) (www.smp-council.org.hk/pt/file/pdf/Handbook.pdf), setting out a professional accreditation system and relevant procedures to provide its Boards with a mechanism for conducting evaluation of educational programmes. Under the framework of the Handbook, the Occupational Therapists Board and the Physiotherapists Board formulated their detailed accreditation criteria according to their own professional requirements in July 2014 and February 2015 respectively. Upon receipt of formal applications for professional accreditation and the necessary detailed information submitted by educational institutions, the SMPC and the Boards concerned will conduct accreditation in accordance with the procedures and accreditation criteria set out in the Handbook, including the teacher-to-student ratio and the number of hours of clinical practicum. The Boards concerned will also set up accreditation panels comprising the following persons as stipulated in the Handbook:
- a chairman not affiliated with or employed by the educational institutions concerned;
- an overseas expert renowned in education in the relevant field or in accreditation;
- a local expert renowned in education in the relevant field or in accreditation;
- two local members of the profession concerned from different employment backgrounds;
- a representative from the relevant specialty college of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine; and
- a lay member.
The membership of the accreditation panels approved by the Boards concerned are at Annex VII.
The professional accreditation process covers the whole duration of the programme so as to continuously monitor the progress of its development and ensure that it has met the minimum requirements before the application for accreditation is approved. Once the programme is accredited, graduates of the programme may apply for registration as an occupational therapist or a physiotherapist. The SMPC and the Boards concerned will also develop accreditation mechanisms so as to continuously monitor the standard of the accredited programmes in future.
(v) and (vi) In accordance with the Ordinance and its subsidiary legislations, an applicant who has the local qualifications prescribed in the relevant subsidiary legislation may be registered according to section 12(1)(a) of the Ordinance, whereas an applicant who has the qualifications not prescribed in legislation may apply for registration according to section 12(1)(b) of the Ordinance. In general, currently non-locally trained allied health professionals (including occupational therapists and physiotherapists) who have recognised qualifications may be registered without taking licensing examinations. Applications for registration are subject to the approval of the Boards concerned on individual merits. The Government has no plans to change the mode of operation as the system has been working effectively.
(vii) At present, the Occupational Therapists Board and the Physiotherapists Board have uploaded the Handbook and announced the current status of accreditation of new programmes on their websites (www.smp-council.org.hk/ot/en/content.php?page=reg_atp and www.smp-council.org.hk/pt/en/content.php?page=reg_atp). The Boards also request institutions to inform students who have enrolled in or any persons who are interested in signing up for the programmes of the status of accreditation.
The detailed accreditation criteria, which are used for assessment of new programmes of local institutions, will only be given to institutions for reference or programme planning purpose.
Ends/Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Issued at HKT 20:50
Issued at HKT 20:50
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