XN000022-1995-04-14+15 — Page 4

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Licensing Office for Elderly Homes Operational

The former Registration Office of Private Homes for the Elderly of the Social Welfare Department has been restructured and renamed the Licensing Office of Residential Care Homes for the Elderly (LORCHE) from April 1 to cope with the implementation of the related legislation.

The Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Ordinance, with the exception of Section 6, has come into operation on April 1 this year.

"With the implementation of the Ordinance, residential care homes for the elderly have to comply with the licensing requirements on location, space, design, structure, safety, fire precautions, staffing and quality of care to the residents before they are allowed to operate," said the SWD's Senior Social Work Officer (LORCHE), Mrs Loretta Chau.

"The new legislation aims to regulate homes established for residential care of elderly persons who have attained the age of 60 years so as to ensure that these homes provide services of a reasonable standard and that the well-being of the elderly residents is safeguarded," she said.

"Although the LORCHE only came into existence in April, we have been very busy during the past few months in preparing all the logistics to set up the new office.

"The new office is formed by strengthening manpower in the social work stream on the one hand and by injecting new blood seconded from the Buildings Department and Fire Services Department on the other," Mrs Chau said.

At present, the LORCHE has an establishment of 31 officers comprising social workers, building surveyors, senior station officers and clerical support.

Mrs Chau said with multi-disciplinary professionals working under the same umbrella, it was hoped that the licensing office could handle and process applications more efficiently and effectively.