XN000022-1996-02-26 — Page 2

Death of elderly persons during cold weather

Responding to concerns about reported deaths of elderly people during the recent cold weather, a government spokesman said today (Monday) that the Administration had always placed a high priority on improving services for the elderly and on promoting community care for them.

The spokesman said the Government would examine whether improvements could be made to the existing arrangements for dealing with prolonged cold weather. At the same time, he appealed to families and the community to look after their elderly relatives and neighbours during cold weather.

"The sick and the elderly are more vulnerable to sudden changes in temperature," he said.

The Director of Health, Dr Margaret Chan, has, nevertheless, confirmed that none of the post-mortems conducted over the past 10 days had shown hypothermia to be the cause of death of the persons involved.

The spokesman noted that the number of deaths that had occurred over the last 10 days was comparable to the average number of deaths during the winter of previous

years.

"During the cold spell, the Home Affairs Department opened in each district a temporary shelter providing hot drinking water, hot meals and now mattresses for sleeping on," said the spokesman.

"But we cannot force street sleepers into the shelters; we can only persuade and encourage them," he added.

Government staff have actively been meeting street sleepers to persuade them to go into shelters and to pass them blankets to keep them warm. For the last two evenings, street sleepers have been offered transport to take them to the shelters.

he said.

"The real challenge has been to provide care to elderly persons living alone,"

The Social Welfare Department (SWD) has mobilised a wide range of resources to reach out to these people during this period.