Author Archives: hksar gov

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
 
     Amid the recent cooler weather, post-weekend service demand surges and access blockage in some Accident and Emergency Departments at public hospitals have become more common in the first working days. The Hospital Authority (HA) Chief Manager (Cluster Performance), Dr Ian Cheung, said, “Front-line colleagues have expressed views on enhancing the flexibility of the Special Honorarium Scheme (SHS) so that they can help work overtime briefly before or after their normal duty hours to alleviate the workload arising from service demand surges. The HA has informed all the hospital clusters that, starting from tomorrow (December 1), SHS sessions can be implemented with a minimum operation need of one hour when the workload exceeds the normal capacity. By supporting healthcare colleagues who are willing to work overtime, this arrangement will enhance the manpower deployment flexibility.”
 
     With overall medical ward occupancy frequently over 100 per cent, Dr Cheung said that preparation is under way in hospitals to open time-limited beds in currently vacated wards and feasible space in existing wards during the winter surge.
 
     “We will report to the HA Board in late December on the response measures for the winter surge in detail, followed by daily announcement of public hospitals’ daily key statistics,” Dr Cheung said.
 
     Dr Cheung said healthcare staff have shown keen participation in seasonal influenza vaccination to minimise the infection risk for themselves, their families and patients. It is encouraging that over 27 000 staff members have received vaccination, a 50 per cent increase as compared with the same period last year.
 
     “Seasonal influenza vaccination is an effective and safe means to prevent influenza infection and its complications,” Dr Cheung said. He appealed to eligible members of the public who have not yet been vaccinated to get vaccinated at public hospitals or out-patient clinics upon resumption of the vaccination service.
 
     The HA will continue to communicate with front-line staff closely to ensure that response measures can be implemented effectively to address the demand for services in the winter surge.

  

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The spokesperson for Pok Oi Hospital (POH) made the following appeal today (November 30) regarding an in-patient leaving the hospital without notifying ward staff:
        
     A 64-year-old male in-patient of a Medicine and Geriatrics Ward of POH was found missing by ward staff at about 6.30pm this Wednesday (November 28). The patient has congestive heart failure and requires regular medication. Security guards performed a full-scale search within the hospital compound immediately but were unable to locate the patient. POH then informed the patient’s relatives and reported the case to the Police that night. POH is very concerned about the incident and is fully co-operating with the Police in the search.
       
     The patient is around 1.55 metres tall, has a thin build and has black short curly hair. The hospital appeals to the public to contact the Police or the POH hotline at 6468 0016 if they know the whereabouts of the patient. read more

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:      The Hospital Authority (HA) spokesperson said today (November 30) that following the suspension on the use of a batch of quadrivalent seasonal influenza vaccines (… read more

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The Hospital Authority (HA) spokesperson said today (November 30) that the preliminary results of the Surgical Outcomes Monitoring and Improvement Program (SOMIP) for 2018 showed continuous improvement in overall performance. The crude mortality rate of ultra-major and major surgical operations has persistently declined over the years and recorded a further decline to 1.2 per cent from 1.3 per cent last year. At the same time, the 30-day crude mortality rates of emergency surgeries dropped from 5 per cent to 4.4 per cent this year. The 30-day crude mortality rates of elective surgeries remained at the low level of 0.3 per cent.
 
     “The SOMIP team is still validating and finalising the data for detailed analysis. While there is persistent improvement in the overall performance of public hospital surgical units, the SOMIP team will visit the hospitals which have improved to a lesser extent than their peers to apprehend the local situation with the department staff in the coming months. Multilevel analysis will also be conducted to reaffirm the findings and explore directions for improvement. The HA will follow up with the resources implication as indicated by the findings. Through the Annual Plan mechanism, the HA will support clusters and hospitals to implement the necessary improvement initiatives,” the HA spokesperson said.
 
     The preliminary findings in emergency surgeries this year indicated that, with reference to the expected performance, Queen Elizabeth Hospital continued to outperform other public hospitals in terms of post-operative 30-day mortality, while Caritas Medical Centre and North District Hospital compared unfavourably with other HA hospitals. In elective surgeries, Princess Margaret Hospital compared unfavourably with other HA hospitals in post-operative 30-day mortality. The SOMIP team will study the data and, in collaboration with the hospitals concerned, find improvement measures. North District Hospital has improved its manpower deployment and service arrangement. The New Territories East Hospital Cluster will continue to implement various measures to strengthen collaboration and mutual support between the three hospitals with surgical services within the Cluster.
 
     The HA introduced the SOMIP in 2008 to collect and analyse the clinical data of 17 public hospital surgical departments for healthcare professionals’ reference and follow up. The results will also be shared and discussed during the staff forum.
 
     “With the dedicated efforts over the years, the overall surgical service standard of public hospitals is on a par with international benchmarks. In the years ahead, the HA will conduct longer term data collection and analysis, displacing the annual release of results. The team will focus its efforts on peer deliberation and data sharing to continue to improve the quality of surgical service in public hospitals,” the spokesperson added. read more

     â€‹The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health today (November 30) reported the latest number of cases of dengue fever (DF) and chikungunya fever (CF), and again urged the public to maintain strict environment… read more