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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
In response to media enquiries about the remuneration package of senior executives of the Hospital Authority (HA), the spokesman for HA gave the following reply:
There is an established mechanism in HA to consider and decide on the remuneration packages of its staff members and senior executives. The Annual Pay Adjustment (APA) for all staff members in general is to be approved by the HA Board, which is basically to match living standard adjustments. The rate of APA will normally follow that of the SAR Governemnt for civil servants. In 2007/08, the APA for two different bands were 4.96% and 4.62%.
For senior executives (including Directors and Heads at HA Head Office, Cluster Chief Executives and Hospital Chief Executives), their remuneration package and contract terms are determined by the Staff Committee under the HA Board.
Other than the annual pay adjustment, most of the general staff and senior executives are also entitled to incremental pay point adjustment providing their performance is satisfactory and still fall within the corresponding salary range.
For individual senior executives who got pay packages that may not tally with the APA rate, it would be attributed to various reasons such as change in duties (e.g. expansion of job portfolio, promotion etc), or change in remuneration methods (e.g. taking home loan instead of cash, cash in of holidays etc), or change in contract terms (e.g. switch from contract to permanent), and the granting of end of contract gratuity. However, it would not be appropriate for HA to reveal unilaterally individual staff member’s remuneration details.
It should be pointed out that almost 80 percent of the annual expenditures of HA are on staff cost because the provision of health care services is a labour intensive industry which requires professional input. The Authority stresses that the annual expenditures of HA, including personal emoluments, drugs and medical equipment, and other charges are subject to monitoring of the Government as well as the Legislative Council. Systems are in place for the HA Board to monitor the use of expenditure including personal emoluments for the delivery of healthcare services. The HA would ensure the cost-effective use of available public resources in the provision of quality health care to the community.
Ends/Friday, January 16, 2009
Issued at HKT 19:57
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