End
(i)
(ii)
48
able-bodied adult CSSA recipients aged between 15 and 59 are required to register with the Labour Department: these job seekers are offered priority in their registration with the Local Employment Service; and they will be advised to join the Employee Retraining Scheme, if it is considered useful in helping them to find employment; and
there are provisions in the Scheme which encourage unemployed persons to look actively for work. These include the arrangement to disregard, when making an assessment on CSSA entitlement, any retraining allowance received by the unemployed person.
Hospital Authority's reviews on service utilisation
*
Following is a question by Dr the Hon Huang Chen-ya and a written reply by the acting Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Doris Ho, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
As the Utilisation Reviews conducted by the Hospital Authority have assisted in containing expenditure on medical expenses and reducing wastage, does the Government know:
Reply:
(a)
(b)
whether the Hospital Authority has conducted any Utilisation Review on the number of admissions, length of hospitalisation, diagnostic and surgical procedures as well as use of drugs in the various specialist services; if not, why not; and
if the answer to (a) is in the affirmative, of the items in each specialist service which have been identified as inappropriately utilised, their utilisation rates, the reasons for inappropriate utilisation, and the proportion of the wasted resources to the total expenditure in each specialist service?
The Hospital Authority adopts good management practice by examining regularly the utilisation pattern, mode of delivery and cost-effectiveness of different services to identify potential scope for economisation and/or resource redeployment. Variations from agreed benchmarks are carefully examined with a view to improving service efficiency.