New Territories East Cluster (NTEC)

The New Territories East Cluster (NTEC) serves an estimated population of 1.3 million covering the districts of Shatin, Tai Po, North District and part of Sai Kung. It comprises seven hospitals and 11 general out-patient clinics.

The seven hospitals are Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH), North District Hospital (NDH), Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, Tai Po Hospital, Shatin Hospital, Cheshire Home Shatin and Bradbury Hospice. The Cluster provides a full range of acute, convalescent, rehabilitation and extended care, in-patient and specialist out-patient services to the public, with three Accident & Emergency centres serving three major districts. Apart from the general out-patient clinics, NTEC also provides ambulatory care services in a number of day hospitals, as well as a large network of community outreach services including the Community Geriatric Assessment Teams and Community Nursing Service.

Key Achievements

The opening of PWH Extension Block in the previous year significantly improved emergency care services in the hospital. Delay in emergency admissions due to unavailability of in-patient beds largely disappeared during the winter surge and influenza epidemic in early 2011. Treatment capacity for cancer patients was much improved with targeted additional operating theatre sessions, expanded capacity for chemotherapy, and introduction of the fifth linear accelerator in the hospital.

Establishment of the Respiratory Collaborative Care Team in NDH proved to be very successful in improving care and support for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients in the community. Community psychiatric service was strengthened to deliver better support to patients with severe mental illness through the new Community Case Manager Programme and Rapid Crisis Intervention Teams.

The Cluster has further enhanced patient safety with focus on medication safety through staff engagement, promotion of patient safety culture, and implementation of risk reduction programmes. Endeavours continued during the year with four of the seven hospitals in the Cluster going through gap analysis in preparation for the hospital accreditation programme.

Initiatives were implemented to maintain a stable workforce as an ongoing goal of NTEC, including better training opportunities and career advancement prospect for doctors, nurses and other professional staff. The “one-staff-one-plan” training programme introduced initially for nurses and allied health staff was extended to doctors. Local training programmes and overseas training opportunities were also enhanced.