Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ9: Subsidised home care services

Following is a question by the Hon Chan Yuen-han and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (June 14):

Question :

Regarding home care services for the elderly, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the current number of non-urgent cases of elderly persons waiting for services such as household cleaning, meal delivery, escort for medical consultations, bathing for frail elderly persons, nursing care and physiotherapy, and the respective average and longest waiting times for the same type of cases in various districts;

(b) as an additional $20 million will be earmarked annually from this financial year onward to strengthen home care services for the elderly, of the services on which the provision will be used, and the estimated reduction in the waiting time of the service users and workload of frontline care workers as a result of the additional resources; and

(c) whether it will review, in the near future, the mode of and demand for the integrated home care services specifically provided for the elderly, so that such services can immediately be available to all the elderly in need?

Reply :

Madam President,

Caring for elders is not just the responsibility of the Government alone. Elders and families should also share the responsibilities. Through the social safety net and various types of subsidised services, the Government strives to enhance the quality of life of elders, and facilitate families and carers to take care of elders. Public resources are limited. We have to deploy resources effectively and render subsidised services to elders most in need.

Elders will enjoy better physical and mental health if they live in the community and maintain a normal social life. Therefore, in further developing elderly services, Government's emphasis is to assist elders to age in their domestic homes. In this regard, we provide elders in need, including elders who do not have long term care (LTC) needs, with various types of community care and support services.

Elders who have LTC needs may apply for subsidised home care services which include assistance in daily living, personal care, physiotherapy, meal delivery, household cleaning and escort services. The services are provided by the 60 Integrated Home Care Services (IHCS) Teams and the 18 Enhanced Home and Community Care Services (EHCCS) Teams. Elders using the services have to go through the Standardised Care Needs Assessment to ascertain whether their frailty has reached moderate or severe level. At present, there are more than 3 000 elders using these services. Elders who have LTC needs may also apply for day care services provided by the Day Care Centres/Units for the Elderly. There are at present 1 955 day care places.

Elders who do not have LTC needs may apply for subsidised home care services which include meal delivery, household cleaning and escort. The services are provided by the IHCS Teams. Elders using the services do not have to go through the Standardised Care Needs Assessment. At present, about 16 000 elders are using these services (known as IHCS (Ordinary Cases)).

All of the services mentioned above are non-means-tested.

My replies to the specific questions raised by the Hon Chan Yuen-han are as follows:

(a) There are vacancies in the home care services for elders who have LTC needs. Users do not have to wait for these services.

There are about 2 000 cases waiting for home care services for elders who do not have LTC needs (i.e. IHCS (Ordinary Cases)). All are non-urgent cases. For urgent cases, IHCS Teams will provide the elders with services that are in urgent need (e.g. meal delivery) immediately. Over 75% of the 2 000 waitlisted cases are seeking household cleaning service. The waiting time varies from districts to districts, ranging from a few days to a few months. At present, 21 of the 60 IHCS Teams do not have waitlisted cases.

(b) The Financial Secretary has allocated an additional $20 million recurrent funding in 2006-07 for the Social Welfare Department (SWD) to strengthen home care services for elders. SWD will deploy the additional resources to increase the capacity of IHCS (Ordinary Cases). SWD will take into account the existing service volume and waitlisted caseload of individual IHCS Teams to determine the appropriate amount of additional resources for each of them to strengthen their manpower to share the workload and increase the service capacity. We project that, with the additional capacity to be generated by the $20 million additional resources, we should be able to provide services to the majority of those currently waiting for the services.

(c) In 2006-07, Government's expenditure on subsidised elderly services is estimated to be about $3.3 billion. The estimated expenditure on home care services is about $529 million. With an ageing population, there will be a growing demand for subsidised elderly services (including home care services). To enhance the quality of life of elders, we will strengthen the services as appropriate, taking into account the availability of resources. As public resources are limited, we have to ensure that resources are deployed effectively to render services to elders most in need.

At present, subsidised home care services and other subsidised elderly services are heavily subsidised. Also, they do not require means-testing. The meal delivery, household cleaning and escort services for elders in general do not require users to go through the Standardised Care Need Assessment. We need to consider whether the existing targeted users, level of subsidy and charges, and service delivery mode of the subsidised elderly services are conducive to the efficient use of public resources, fostering family support, and the sustainability of the system. We have started exploring these issues with the Elderly Commission.


Ends/Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Issued at HKT 14:48

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