The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Hospital Authority (HA) today (August 27) announced that medication delivery service will be available in all specialist out-patient clinics (SOPCs) (excluding the SOPCs in St John Hospital) when the service extends to the New Territories West Cluster tomorrow (August 28). By then, suitable patients of SOPCs can choose to have their medications directly delivered to their homes or designated addresses in Hong Kong to save time on medication collection.
The Chief Pharmacist of the HA, Dr Benjamin Lee, said that the new medication delivery service has received a positive response from patients since it was launched in May and gradually extended to different clusters. Over 1 300 SOPC patients have utilised this service so far and the utilisation is expected to increase when the service is fully implemented in all HA SOPCs.
Dr Lee encouraged patients to make use of the added feature "Pharmacist Medication Counselling Service" that comes with the medication delivery service when arranging a delivery request. HA pharmacists will contact patients via telephone or video call to provide medication counselling service and answer drug-related enquiries, ensuring proper use of medication and enhance treatment outcomes.
Starting from September, the service will also be available under the "Carer" and "My Child" modes in the HA mobile application "HA Go". This will enable family members or caregivers of SOPC patients as well as parents of SOPC patients under the age of 18 to arrange medication delivery after consultation. Moving forward, the service will cover more types of medications prescribed to patients discharged from the hospital, those receiving accident and emergency services, and patients refilling medications, offering more people a convenient way to collect medications.
The HA reminded that patients who opt for the medication delivery service to ensure there is no newly prescribed medication that needs to be taken immediately and they have enough drugs on hand that can last until the estimated delivery of the new medications. Patients can arrange for their medications to be delivered to home or a local designated address through the "HA Go" app, and a standard delivery fee of $65 per prescription will be charged. The service covers most medications, including refrigerated items, except for controlled medications classified as Dangerous Drugs under the laws of Hong Kong. Patients, or their assigned representatives, are required to show a drug collection QR code in the "HA Go" app as a means of identity verification on receipt of their medications to ensure that the medications are safely delivered.
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