XN000022-1995-04-27 — Page 11

9.

Mr Eric Li (through interpreter): Mr Governor, I'd like to return to the subject of rehabilitation. Now as you said just now, even if you have the money you may not be able to acquire premises for such services but I don't know if you know that there is also a manpower problem. At present for associations providing such services they are subject to such difficulties. I agree that for these disabled people they should be given priority but in terms of manpower the rehabilitation sector will need to compete with other areas for manpower. For example, in terms of auxiliary medical staff, they have to compete for staff members with the Hospital Authority and in terms of child care workers they may have to compete with the Education Department and they may also have to compete for staff with other NGO's. In Chapter 13, paragraph seven, 13.7. of the Green Paper on Rehabilitation there is a proposal there and that is the Health and Welfare Branch should have a central co-ordinating body established to monitor manpower supply and demands but over the past three years it seems like progress on this subject has been very slow and we haven't seen any concrete proposal on this subject yet. For example, in terms of physiotherapists or speech therapists, etc., these are very important staff members. We haven't even conducted a demand study for such staff members so I hope that you can pay more attention to this problem so that we can provide improvement in this area.

Governor: It's an important issue and an important area but I don't believe that vital as it is, it's the reason for the difficulty that we've had in meeting the targets that we set in 1992. But it is a subject that we will, of course, be addressing in the White Paper on Rehabilitation which, as I said, we hope to publish before the end of May. I say again that if you look at the expenditure which has rightly gone into this area, and which has rightly been endorsed by this Council, for Rehabilitation it has risen almost exponentially in the last couple of years with further increases to come and I don't think that resources or even manpower, important as that is, are the main problem in delivering on these targets. But the Honourable Member is, of course, correct in drawing attention to the need for developing some of the paramedical services that he referred to.

Mr Eric Li (through interpreter): Yes, a simple follow-up. I agree to what you said just now Mr Governor. Recently some rehabilitation sector, they met with me and they said that they have difficulties in maintaining the existing services because of a shortage of staff. For example, for some paramedical staff, for example occupational therapists or physiotherapists, they have gone to the Hospital Authority. So it's very difficult for them to maintain the same level of services and they hope that you can pay attention to this problem and contact the relevant NGO's.

Governor: I can.