Kowloon East Cluster (KEC)
| Number of general outpatient clinics | 8 |
| Throughput | |
| Number of beds | 2,527 |
| Patient discharges* | 181,702 |
| A&E attendances | 316,235 |
| Specialist outpatient attendances (clinical) | 820,458 |
| General outpatient attendances | 969,190 |
| Full-time equivalent staff | 7,572 |
* Total inpatient, day patient discharges and deaths
Manpower is an invaluable asset to KEC in delivering professional and dedicated services to the public. The Cluster launched a number of initiatives to ease manpower strain. Additional allied health professionals were recruited to enhance multi-disciplinary support for patients. More supporting staff were hired to share out simple clinical tasks and clerical workload of allied health professionals. KEC also recruited additional nurses to alleviate the nursing manpower shortfall in hospital wards.
KEC had endeavoured to address growing service demand and pressure areas. The Cluster opened 32 additional acute medical beds and four additional surgical day beds. Moreover, two designated medical beds with multi-disciplinary support were available for patients on mechanical ventilation. An oncology team was set up to strengthen the clinical oncology service. In addition, service capacity was broadened by increasing treatment quota for renal replacement therapy for patients with end-stage renal disease, as well as providing additional endoscopic procedures to allay the waiting list. KEC continued to increase the general outpatient clinic episodic quota by 2,750 attendances to improve access of target population groups to primary care services. To alleviate the access block at A&E departments, additional support sessions were provided for handling Triage IV (semi-urgent) and Triage V (non-urgent) cases. The Cluster also enhanced child and adolescent psychiatric outpatient services by providing additional new case consultations to curtail the specialist outpatient clinic (SOPC) waiting time. The laboratory service was improved with provision of extended service hours and expanded scope of tests. Enhancement on accessibility of pharmacy services was also in place by extending the weekday pharmacy service in HHH.
TKOH had successfully completed her first Organisation Wide Survey in November 2015 and a four-year full accreditation status was granted by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards. KEC adopted modern technology and new clinical practice with a view to improving patient safety and quality of service, as well as managing risk. Inpatient Medication Order Entry system was implemented in UCH to support clinical workflow and enhance medication safety. The Cluster continued to phase out the reuse of selected class II moderate and moderate-high risk single use device according to clinical prioritisation. In addition, the management of cancer patients requiring targeted therapies was modernised through providing additional molecular tests. KEC also stepped up the adoption of minimal invasive surgery technique in hysterectomy surgeries for suitable gynaecological patients. In pursuit of patient safety, the Cluster also enhanced the maintenance for high risk medical equipment.
In sustaining good partnership with patients and community, phone enquiry systems were set up at UCH to improve and streamline the phone enquiry services at SOPCs. The central coordinated refill service for medical consumables and linen items was rolled out in hospital wards with a view to ensuring adequate resources for meeting service needs.
KEC set up and expanded the planning and commissioning teams in order to coordinate and monitor major capital projects including the HHH expansion project, UCH expansion project as well as operation of the new Ambulatory Care Block of TKOH. The Cluster will continue to work closely with HA Head Office as well as respective stakeholders to ensure smooth progress of the capital projects.
