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Public hospital beds planning and provision
Following is a question by the Hon Zachary Wong and a written reply by the Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Katherine Fok, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
Reply:
Will the Government inform this Council:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
of the current planning standard in regard to the ratio between accident / emergency beds and convalescent beds in the hospitals under the management of the Hospital Authority (HA);
of the respective numbers of accident/emergency beds and convalescent beds, and the ratio between the two types of beds, in these hospitals;
of the respective average daily costs of maintaining cach accident / emergency bed and convalescent bed in these hospitals; and
whether the number of convalescent beds in HA's hospitals in New Territories West meets the standard referred to in (a) above; if not, what measures are in place to improve the situation?
The planning and provision of public hospital beds is influenced by a number of factors including demographic profile and patient conditions, development of day treatment procedures and community nursing care, as well as the availability of other
There is
acute to fixed ratio between no complementary services. convalescent/infirmary beds but the actual provision of beds will be adjusted in line with changing community needs.
There were a total of 13,944 acute beds, 3.733 convalescent beds and 1,772 infirmary beds in public hospitals as at the end of March 1996 in 1995/96. The corresponding ratio of acute to convalescent/infirmary beds is 2.5:1.