Chief Executive’s Report
The Hospital Authority (HA) has entered a new era after the celebration of its silver jubilee in 2015. While we have critically reviewed our past, we understand that our effort must not cease so as to fulfil the mission of HA amidst challenges posed by ageing population, medical technology advancement, the prevalence of chronic diseases, higher patient expectation and emerging communicable diseases. With 74,000 professional and committed staff members, HA will continue to do its utmost to serve the public with care and expertise in sustaining a robust and reliable healthcare system and formulate long term plans for the future.
The HA Review led by the Government has come at an opportune time to better prepare us for future challenges. Steered by the Board, HA has been diligently implementing the recommendations of the Steering Committee on Review of HA as pledged in the HA Action Plan. The role of Head Office in central coordination is strengthened to ensure consistency in service provision and to coordinate the adoption of new treatment and highly specialised technology among clusters. With regard to refining the cluster management structure, the roles and responsibilities of Cluster Chief Executives (CCEs) and their involvement in the overall management of HA have been reviewed to achieve better division of labour and alignment of service provision at cluster level with organisation goals. Arrangements have also been made by phases to group two or more hospitals under the management of one Hospital Chief Executive (HCE). This can bring the scope of duties of all HCEs to a comparable level and facilitate job rotation among HCEs with a view to enhancing cooperation, coordination and role differentiation of hospitals within the cluster. Better coordination of services and rationalisation of the organisation structure will ensure smooth operation of HA and effective delivery of services.
On the service operational front, HA took forward various initiatives to increase the service capacity in priority areas. Primary care services were strengthened through the addition of general outpatient clinic (GOPC) quotas in 2016-17, and an increase of telephone lines supporting the GOPC Telephone Appointment System. These measures effectively provide greater convenience to the public.
Service demand was better managed through extended collaborations with community partners, thus alleviating patients’ waiting time. In addition to the existing Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Programmes, the Colon Assessment PPP Programme was launched last year. While optimising the use of healthcare resources, the Programmes enable participating patients to enjoy more choices and receive appropriate treatment as early as possible.
HA Strategic Plan 2017-2022 was published last year. The plan sets out HA’s overall direction, and strategic integrated planning of services, facilities and workforce in the coming five years. The Strategic Plan will be the overarching framework for guiding the HA Annual Plan for 2017-18 and that beyond.
HA is implementing capital projects of various scales in order to improve patient services including redevelopment of Kwong Wah Hospital and Queen Mary Hospital, expansion of United Christian Hospital, and a new acute hospital in Kai Tak Development Area. The construction work for Tin Shui Wai Hospital and re-provisioning of Yaumatei Specialist Clinic at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, as well as the superstructure works for the new Hong Kong Children’s Hospital have been already completed. The above projects are part of the 10-year Hospital Development Plan which will provide some 5,000 additional public hospital beds and over 90 new operating theatres upon completion.
Effective human resource management is of paramount importance to professional development and motivation among staff, which facilitate delivery of patient-centred services. In addition to recruitment of healthcare professionals, we continued to enhance promotion opportunities for Residents to Associate Consultants, and strengthen training and development through simulation training for clinical staff, corporate scholarship programme, mediation skills training, etc. We value staff’s opinions and conducted the HA-wide staff survey in August 2016 to better understand their concerns. We will conduct a detailed analysis of the survey’s findings and formulate improvement measures, with a view to building a more favourable working environment.
In line with the global trend of harnessing technology in the delivery of healthcare services, HA strives to streamline workflow and enhance service efficiency with IT solutions, including Clinical Management System III, Inpatient Medication Order Entry System, Filmless Operating Theatres, etc. We embrace innovation and technology to provide the public with instant access to public healthcare services and information at their fingertips – including delivery of alerts on news of public healthcare services and activities by HA corporate app HA Touch; a handy specialist outpatient clinics (SOPC) new case booking platform BookHA; a one-stop portal of pregnancy information HApi Journey; useful caring tips with Stoma Care. More mobile apps are being planned and developed.
Last year, HA continued to support various Government-led public healthcare initiatives, including the Electronic Health Record (eHR) programme, seasonal influenza vaccination programme, and the organ donation campaign with various initiatives to promulgate the organ donation messages to the community at large.
Senior appointments in 2016-17 included Dr Deacons Yeung Tai-kong as Hospital Chief Executive (HCE) of Pok Oi Hospital and Tin Shui Wai Hospital; Dr Lo Su-vui as CCE of New Territories East Cluster; Dr Libby Lee Ha-yun as Director (Strategy and Planning) at HA Head Office; and Dr Herman Lau as HCE of Shatin Hospital, Bradbury Hospice and Cheshire Home, Shatin.
I wish to express my deepest gratitude to our passionate and dedicated staff for their selfless contributions in safeguarding public health. I must also thank the Government for its unfaltering support in funding and policy initiatives. With the concerted effort of all, HA will continue to move ahead and make impressive strides in maximising the benefit of the community in public healthcare services.
PY Leung
Chief Executive