Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ20: Development of private hospital services
Following is a question by the Dr Hon Kwok Ka-ki and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (July 12):
Question:
According to the consultation paper "Building a Healthy Tomorrow" published by
the Government last year, the future direction in the provision of healthcare
services is to place equal emphasis on both the public and private healthcare
services. However, the Government has not allocated any suitable sites for
building private hospitals for quite a long time. It has come to my knowledge
that the occupancy rate of private hospital beds has reached saturation
recently. Due to shortage of bed spaces, some private hospitals have even been
unable to admit patients referred to them by public hospitals. In this
connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) how it will, in terms of policy and healthcare financing, support the
long-term development of private hospital services;
(b) apart from allocating the lot in Wong Chuk Hang, whether it will reserve any
land in other districts for the construction of private hospitals so as to solve
the problem of shortage in bed spaces in private hospitals; whether such land
includes the hospital site mentioned in the report on Kai Tak Planning Review;
and
(c) whether it will support healthcare services in Hong Kong through the
provision of land and construction subsidy, as it does for educational
institutions, in order to encourage approved charitable institutions or trust
corporations of a public nature to build more private hospitals?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The Health and Medical Development Advisory Committee (HMDAC) released a
consultation document entitled "Building a Healthy Tomorrow" in July 2005. It
recommends, among others, that the public and private medical sectors should be
well-integrated to promote healthy competition in terms of service quality and
professional standards, and provide a choice for the public.
The consultation document also recommends that it is necessary to redress the
imbalance between the public and private sectors. This will not only allow the
private sector greater room for development, but also help achieve an overall
improvement in the quality of care for patients and thus sustainability of the
healthcare system.
To provide the dynamism necessary for the transition of patients between the
public and private sectors, we share the HMDAC's view that a territory-wide
information system should be developed whereby carers in both public and private
sectors, with prior authorisation from their patients, can access, enter, store
and retrieve patients' personal medical records. This is fundamental to the
success of referral protocols and shared care programmes between public and
private sectors.
The Hospital Authority (HA) launched an Electronic Patient Record Sharing Pilot
Project in the second quarter of 2006 which allows certain number of private
medical institutions to have access via the Internet to patients' records kept
in the public hospitals with the patients' consent. This project serves to
assess the technical feasibility of patient record sharing and its acceptability
among the users. It is expected that some 200 private medical institutions
(including private hospitals, clinics, care homes for the elderly and those
involved in the shared care programmes) with about 10 000 patients will
participate in the project ultimately. A thorough review of the pilot project
will be conducted by the HA in the last quarter of 2006.
(b) From the land-use planning angle, the development of a hospital on land
zoned "Government, Institution or Community" is generally permissible. The
hospital site in the draft Preliminary Outline Development Plan under the
planning review of Kai Tak is earmarked for the development of a public
hospital.
(c) The Government has put in place a mechanism to process applications from
organisations interested in running private hospitals. Where an application
fulfils established government policies and public interest considerations, the
Government will offer appropriate assistance which includes giving consideration
to an application for the grant of land.
Ends/Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Issued at HKT 13:00
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