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Assessment of medical manpower
Following is a question by Dr the Hon David Li Kwok-po and a written reply by the Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Katherine Fok, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
It is learnt that the Hospital Authority's budget for 1997/98 includes a provision for providing additional 669 beds in public hospitals. However, it is learnt that the President of the Public Doctors' Association has stated that the establishment of medical personnel in public hospitals should be increased by a further 10% to alleviate the chronic shortage of medical staff, instead of providing more hospital beds. In this connection, does the Government know whether the Hospital Authority:
(a)
(b)
has assessed the staffing level of medical personnel in each of the public hospitals before drawing up the budget; and
will allocate additional provision for the recruitment of more medical personnel?
Reply:
The provision of sufficient manpower including doctors, nurses and allied health professionals is crucial to the delivery of quality care services and the Hospital Authority (HA) has carefully assessed the staffing levels and requirements in each public hospital before drawing up its annual plan and allocating resources to different institutions.
The assessment includes a review of the current and projected workload, skill- mix between different professionals, advancement in medical developments, productivity improvements and changes in patients' requirements.
Whenever new beds are commissioned, a package of resources including manpower, drugs and other related provisions is provided to the hospital concerned. Accordingly, extra provision has been included in the 1997/98 Draft Estimates for the recruitment of additional medical personnel to cater for new beds.
End