XN000022-1996-04-03 — Page 100

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(b)

(ii) Advance appointment

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Patients with chronic diseases are given advance appointment for their next clinic visit. They need not queue for consultation discs. It is the pledge of DH for these patients to be seen within 30 minutes of the appointment time. In 1995, DH has achieved an attainment rate of 99.7% for this performance pledge. We have observed, however, that only one-third of elderly patients with chronic diseases are willing to take advantage of the advance appointment system. More than 50% of the patients prefer to attend GOPC in the early hours of the morning to suit their own personal convenience. DH is considering ways to encourage greater use of the advance appointment system.

For the general out-patient departments operated within the Hospital Authority (HA), the queuing time for medical consultation is being monitored and is less than 90 minutes on the average. As for the specialist out-patient services, measures have also been in place to shorten the waiting time for first appointment and there is considerable improvement over the past few years. The measures include increasing consultation sessions and opening new specialist clinics through redevelopment of hospital complex. It is the performance target of HA that the average waiting time for first appointment at 90% of specialist clinics is less than three months.

After seeing the doctor, the patient spends a further 10-20 minutes at the clinic for the dispensation of drugs.

Priority discs for the elderly are available in most GOPCs run by DH with the exception of a few smaller or more isolated GOPC's where more than 50% of the patients are of the elderly age-group. In total, well over 10% of GOPC consultation capacity is set aside for priority discs for elderly patients.

Most of the out-patient clinics within HA institutions are for specialist medical consultation. Since these clinics would attend to all patients on an appointment basis, the practice of providing priority discs for the elderly would not be necessary. As for the GOPCs operated by HA hospitals, about 1/2 to 2/3 of the discs will be allocated to the elderly in some clinics. For those clinics without priority discs arrangement, most of the patients attending their GOPCs are already elderly patients.

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