New Territories East Cluster (NTEC)
| Number of general outpatient clinics | 10 |
| Throughput | |
| Number of beds | 4,713 |
| Patient discharges* | 302,427 |
| A&E attendances | 385,432 |
| Specialist outpatient attendances (clinical) | 1,197,841 |
| General outpatient attendances | 972,454 |
| Full-time equivalent staff | 11,822 |
* Total inpatient, day patient discharges and deaths
In 2016-17, NTEC spared no effort to optimise the management of demand and improve service quality and safety.
Access block resulting from immense service demand due to population growth, in particular the aged population, continued to be a problem in NTEC. The pressure was more acute during winter surge period.
The Cluster has implemented the bed management enhancement programme since November 2016. In addition to daily morning meeting to monitor the hospital bed situation, staff are designated on-site at all times to take charge of overall bed coordination, early bed arrangement and escalation of support whenever the need arises. The programme proved to be effective in alleviating the problem. Promising results were observed in the percentage of access block ≥ 12 hours dropping to zero, while that of ≥ 4 hours also declined in AHNH, NDH and PWH. Apart from tackling the admission problem, NTEC also continued the initiative of discharge lounge during the winter surge as a downstream measure to facilitate early discharge. Patients ready for discharge are transferred to the discharge lounge and looked after by nurses, while beds in wards can then be vacated for admission of other patients.
During the year, the implementation of “Express Queue Dispensing” in PWH successfully shortened the overall waiting time for medications. It was a collaborative endeavour of PWH frontline colleagues with the support of Head Office Chief Pharmacist’s Office and Information Technology and Health Informatics Division. Since the introduction of the system, the average waiting time for drug dispensing has significantly reduced. The initiative won HA Outstanding Team Award in 2017.
Seasonal influenza vaccination achieved improved uptake rate among patients and staff in 2016-17. NTEC will keep up vigilance against influenza.