Press Releases
Food and Health Bureau offers condolences to parents of Yu Kam-chun
A spokesman for the Food and Health Bureau said today (June 12) that the
Government was sadden by the unfortunate incident involving mental patient.
"Our deepest condolences go to the parents of the deceased boy Yu Kam-chun,"
the spokesman added.
The Hospital Authority (HA) has in recent years kept its in-patient
psychiatric services under review and launched various new programmes to
enhance its community psychiatric services.
According to the research findings and the accumulated experience of
international and local experts in psychiatry, allowing the early discharge
of mental patients in stabilised condition to receive rehabilitation service
in the community can facilitate their rehabilitation and reduce the chance
of relapse of their illness. HA and psychiatric experts constantly review
the details and arrangements regarding the implementation of the policy in
the light of the needs of mental patients for treatment and rehabilitation
in the community.
In addition, the Government has allocated an additional recurrent funding of
$38.66 million to HA since 2009-10 to implement new initiatives to
strengthen mental health services. Besides, HA will set up triage clinics at
the psychiatric specialist outpatient clinics in five hospital clusters,
involving an additional recurrent expenditure of $6.8 million.
The Social Welfare Department (SWD) also provides funding to
non-governmental organisations to support the provision of a range of
community support services to mental patients.
HA and SWD conduct manpower planning for mental health services in the light
of staff wastage and new service programmes. HA will continue to work with
the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists to strengthen the training of
psychiatrists. As regards nurses, HA will also actively recruit nursing
staff from graduates of university psychiatric nursing programmes and former
psychiatric nurses who have left service in recent years.
Meanwhile, the Food and Health Bureau will continue to work closely with the
Labour and Welfare Bureau and adjust or enhance the services in response to
service needs. In the short and medium term, we will allocate additional
resources on prevention, medical treatment and rehabilitation services to
further improve our mental health services and enhance the community support
for the mental patients, so as to facilitate their early recovery and
re-integration into the society.
From 2001-02 to 2008-09, the Government has provided an additional recurrent
funding of $250 million to HA and $86.3 million to SWD to support a number
of initiatives to improve the treatment and rehabilitation services for
mental patients, including various community support services.
Ends/Friday, June 12, 2009
Issued at HKT 20:14
NNNN