Reply:
(c)
(d)
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whether the Government will consider imposing restrictions on residential care homes employing enrolled nurses to take up the duties of health workers, so as to safeguard the employment prospects of health workers registered under the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Ordinance, and to ensure that the resources being put into the training of health workers are not wasted; and
whether the Government will review the effectiveness of the course; if so, when the review will be completed; and the reasons why the Government has held the sixth training course before the completion of the review?
(a)
In order to meet the requirements for nursing and health care staff as stipulated by the Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Regulation and to enhance the service standards of elderly homes, the Social Welfare Department, in conjunction with several professional organisations. has organised a series of training courses for health workers since August 1995. People who graduate from the courses can register under the Regulation as health workers to work in elderly homes.
(1) Based on the estimation of the demand for health workers in April 1995, the Social Welfare Department has applied to the Lotteries Fund to organise 37 health worker training courses to offer 1190 places for people who wish to join the profession. As at mid-November 1996, a total of 26 courses are organised and the number of students who have completed the course is 800.
(ii)
The undertakings signed by the course participants stipulate that they must join the profession within six months after completing the course and should work for no less than one year. As at October 1996, there are 320 participants from the first ten courses who have already graduated for six months. The Social Welfare Department has issued letters to ask them on their employment situation. Based on the responses received, 160 out of the 320 (50%) are employed as health workers.
According to these graduates, the reasons why they have failed to obtain employment are as follows: