XN000022-1997-02-19 — Page 23

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Supply and demand of hospital beds reviewed regularly

Following is a question by the Hon Ho Mun-ka, Michael and a reply by the Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Katherine Fok, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

According to the estimate of the Territorial Development Strategy Review, the population of Hong Kong will be close to 8.1 million by the year 2011, which represents an increase by one-third over the present population. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

Reply:

(a)

(b)

(c)

of the plans in place to expand the local medical services, so as to meet the demands from the future population;

whether any proposals has been submitted by the Hospital Authority to the Government regarding the provision of medical services to tie in with the increasing populations; if so, what the specific details are; and

when it will publish the estimated figures on the distribution of population in various districts, and whether the Hospital Authority will implement its plans to build new hospitals after the publication of such information?

Although population projections are central to our planning process, the provision of public medical services is affected by a number of other factors such as geographical distribution, demographic profile, disease pattern, primary health care and ambulatory care developments, alternative service providers and historical trend of service utilisation.

The Hospital Authority will regularly review the supply and demand for hospital beds in the light of changing community aspirations. Two exercises for this purpose were conducted in 1992 and 1995 to project the hospital bed requirements by the year 2000. In submitting its annual resource bids for capital projects, the Authority will also examine the latest information available such as utilisation statistics, population estimates and demographic profile, rationalisation of services both within and between hospitals. These on-going planning mechanisms have resulted in our decision to go ahead with the construction of two new hospitals in New Territories - North District Hospital and Tseung Kwan O Hospital - as well as a number of other major improvement or redevelopment projects which will provide 30 100 beds by the year 2000, an increase of over 4,600 beds compared with the end of 1996.