XN000022-1996-04-03 — Page 94

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Manpower at hospitals' emergency units

Following is a question by the Hon Zachary Wong and a written reply by the Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Katherine Fok, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

Reply:

Will the Government inform this Council of:

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

the number of doctors on duty and the number of people who sought medical treatment at the Accident and Emergency Department in each of the hospitals under the Hospital Authority over the past three years;

the average waiting time before a patient it given treatment;

the reason why, at the Accident and Emergency Department of Tuen Mun Hospital, patients in emergency cases had to wait for more than three hours and whether such delay would put patients' lives at risk; and

how the situation mentioned in part (c) above can be improved, and whether the Government will consider increasing the number of medical staff in order to shorten the waiting time?

A breakdown showing the deployment of medical staff at different accident and emergency units and the number of attendance are provided at Annexes A and B respectively. The average waiting time is 30 minutes.

Accident and emergency service is designed to cater for patients in more acute conditions. To achieve this intended function, a triage system has been introduced whereby patients are screened by an experienced nurse with special training to determine the relative priority for treatment based on prevailing medical needs of each individual case. While it is inevitable that some non-urgent cases may have to wait longer, there is no question of patients being put at risk.

In the case of Tuen Mun Hospital, as with other public hospitals, deployment of medical staff at the accident and emergency unit should not be examined in isolation from supporting services provided by other clinical departments.