Health | 167
Authority will continue to strengthen ambulatory and community care programmes for patients to receive rehabilitation services near their homes as far as possible. This represents a paradigm shift in the provision of health services from a disease model to a holistic health model, and from focusing on episodic acute hospital care to adopting a life-course approach with an emphasis on preventive, curative and rehabilitative health care. As a result, despite the rapid increase in demand for medical services due in part to an ageing population, the number of patient days, bed occupancy rates and average length of stay in public hospitals remained relatively constant over the past few years.
Accident and Emergency Services
There are 16 public hospitals under the Hospital Authority providing accident and emergency services. These hospitals provide a high standard of service for people critically ill or injured who need urgent medical attention, or for victims of disasters. About $1.4 billion were allocated for the provision of such services in the 2006-2007 financial year.
In 2007, 1.18 million people paid 2.07 million visits to the accident and emergency departments of public hospitals, representing 5 681 attendances per day. Since April 1999, patients attending the accident and emergency departments of public hospitals have been classified under five categories according to their state of health or injuries: Critical (Category 1), Emergency (Category 2), Urgent (Category 3), Semi-urgent (Category 4), and Non-urgent (Category 5). The triage system has proven to be an effective means of ensuring that patients with more urgent conditions are promptly attended to. In 2007, over 95 per cent of patients in categories 1 and 2 received treatment within the pledged waiting time.
Medical Charges and Waiver
Fees for public hospital services in Hong Kong are affordable to the general public. Medical charges of public hospitals and clinics are heavily subsidised by the Government with an average subsidy level as high as 95 per cent. People receiving help under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme are exempted from payment of public medical charges. Other needy groups are also helped through a medical fee waiver mechanism. Recipients of this waiver include low-income patients, chronically ill patients and elderly patients with financial difficulties.
Private Hospitals
Hong Kong's 12 private hospitals served about 19.4 per cent of the hospital inpatients in 2006.
Public Hospital Development Programmes
A number of hospital projects are under way to provide for the development of healthcare services in different parts of Hong Kong. These projects include the extension block of Prince of Wales Hospital, preparatory work for the redevelopment of Yan Chai Hospital and preparatory work for the redevelopment of Caritas Medial Centre Phase 2.