XN000022-1996-11-20 — Page 48

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Reply:

Transfers between public hospitals are mainly caused by the need for patients to receive specialised medical treatment or make use of sophisticated equipment which cannot be provided in every hospital. Furthermore, introduction of service networking and hospital clustering has facilitated tertiary referrals as well as patient movements between acute and convalescent hospitals for the continuity of care. A total of 66,453 and 60,851 transfers were made during the 12-month period ending October 1995 and 1996 respectively. Since any one patient might be involved in more than one transfer, the corresponding number of patients were 63,319 and 58,101.

Although medical records are not yet fully computerised, we are capable of transferring electronically some basic information between hospitals, such as patient demographics, brief diagnostic data and medical history. Progressive development of information technology applications will soon cnable more clinical information to be transferred electronically, both within each hospital and between different hospitals. While these developments are taking place, paper medical record is still currently the major medium of capturing patient information. Over the past few years, the Hospital Authority has been reforming its medical record management system to improve efficiency and reliability.

End

Placement fees paid by Filipino workers

Following is a question by Dr the Hon David La Kwok-po and a written reply by the Secretary for Education and Manpower, Mr Joseph W P Wong, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

It is learnt that some Filipino workers have paid exorbitant placement fees to certain recruiting agencies which supply foreign labour for the Airport Core Programme projects. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether any complaints have been received in this regard; if so, of the number of complaints which have been investigated and the number of prosecutions, if any, which have been instituted as a result of such investigations?