New Territories West Cluster (NTWC)
| Number of general outpatient clinics | 8 |
| Throughput | |
| Number of beds | 4,259 |
| Patient discharges* | 216,135 |
| A&E attendances | 349,264 |
| Specialist outpatient attendances (clinical) | 939,918 |
| General outpatient attendances | 819,087 |
| Full-time equivalent staff | 9,938 |
* Total inpatient, day patient discharges and deaths
To manage growing and rising ageing population, NTWC has been proactively preparing to cater for subsequent new service demands and to improve service quality by enhancing both software and hardware facilities in hospitals.
On inpatient service, NTWC increased the service capacity by opening 120 new beds in 2015-16, including 114 acute and convalescent beds in POH, four High Dependency Unit surgical beds and two convalescent beds in TMH to mitigate the pressure on inpatient facilities. Besides, the Cluster has designated two medical beds in TMH for providing multi-disciplinary support for patients on mechanical ventilation.
NTWC residents also have high demand on A&E services. Daily attendances of the two A&E departments located in TMH and POH reached an average of around 1,000 attendances. In responding to the high service demand, NTWC provided additional support sessions at the two A&E departments to handle Triage IV and V cases, which are semi-urgent and non-urgent cases to relieve the workload of staff. In addition, POH added 15 operating theatre sessions per week to cater for rising demand of surgical service, as well as to start providing emergency surgeries in order to enhance management of acute patients. A transient ischaemic attack clinic was opened in TMH to provide 24-hour thrombolytic service for acute ischaemic stroke patients.
A number of initiatives were implemented in NTWC to alleviate waiting time pressure. Access to service was improved by increasing service quota, which included 22,000 episodic quotas in general outpatient clinics, additional hospital haemodialysis and home automated peritoneal dialysis treatment services for patients with end-stage renal disease, and an addition of 400 endoscopic procedures to better manage the waiting list of endoscopy services. Around 1,050 additional outreach attendances were provided by the Community Geriatric Assessment Team to support terminally ill residents living in residential care homes for the elderly.
NTWC continued to prepare for the service commencement of Tin Shui Wai Hospital (TSWH). Construction work of TSWH is scheduled to be completed in later part of 2016-17. Upon completion of medical equipment installation and tests, TSWH will be commissioned by phases, signifying a key milestone in service expansion in NTWC.
With HA gaining community support from Legislative Council and District Council to expand the TMH Operating Theatre Block, NTWC is now reviewing its clinical services. A Clinical Service Plan will be formulated which serves as a blueprint for the development of the Cluster’s medical service.