Reply:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Mr President,
(a)
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in the light of the public statement made by the management of the Princess Margaret Hospital on 26 November this year that the hospital's childbirth records and statistics confirmed that there were cases of birth asphyxia in the past three years and that some of the affected babies had subsequently died, there is a difference between the Hospital's statement and the Secretary for Health and Welfare's reply; the number of babies born in public hospitals who have lapsed into a "vegetative" state because of birth asphyxia and have remained in such a state since birth or have died over the past three years, and the causes leading to the occurrence of birth asphyxia to the babies concerned;
how the Hospital Authority (HA) ensures that clinicians in public hospitals will only give advice to patients after the patients concerned have given consent to the delivery method to be adopted;
whether the HA will consider requiring the clinician-in-charge to be ultimately responsible for the work of the medical staff of obstetric units in public hospitals in attending to women in labour and carrying out related medical procedures or treatment; and
whether any mechanism is in place to monitor the operation of, and the system adopted in, obstetric units in public hospitals; and whether a comprehensive review of the operation of these units will be undertaken?
In order to clarify any misunderstanding the Honourable Member may have about my reply to him on 20 November 1996, allow me, Mr President, to recapitulate. In my reply, I explained that the term "vegetative stage" is often used to describe patients with sustained, complete loss of cognition while other autonomic functions such as sleeping and breathing remain relatively intact. This condition can follow acute, severe brain damage. I also explained that although birth asphyxia remains a major cause of brain damage leading to various degrees of mental disability, my understanding is that it is extremely rare for such cases to result in babies lapsing into what clinicians describe as "vegetative state", and no such cases had been reported by public hospitals in the past three years.