The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
     
     The Hospital Authority (HA) announced today (March 14) that the Integrated Chinese-Western Medicine (ICWM) services have been further expanded to 26 public hospitals under the seven clusters in the first quarter of 2024 and adding up the hospital sites from eight to 53 (at the Annex). Such expansion is in line with the policy direction set forth in the Policy Address that to promote long-term development of Chinese medicine (CM) and enhance ICWM services in providing services to patients under the designated disease areas (including stroke care, musculoskeletal pain management, cancer palliative care and cancer care pilot programme).
      
     The Chief Manager (Chinese Medicine) of the HA, Ms Rowena Wong, stated, “Since 2014, the HA has been implementing the ICWM pilot programme by phases with a view to gather relevant operational experience. With the staunch support of the Government, the ICWM services have gained substantial results and reaching its periodical milestone. The ICWM services have been regularised since early last year and further extended to cover more hospital sites and disease areas, offering patients additional treatment options for leveraging the advantages of CM and ICWM. The HA will continue to explore the feasibility of extending the ICWM services to cover more disease areas, such as elderly degenerative diseases and respiratory diseases, which would benefit to a greater number of patients.”
      
     The Chief of Service of the Department of Medicine of Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Dr Fong Wing-chi, said, “Stroke patients face many challenges on their treatment and recovery journey. The Western medicine medical team welcomes the participation of CM practitioners in jointly assessing and providing treatment for the patients, believing that such arrangement will offer help to suitable patients participating in the programme. Western medicine and CM experts collaborate in formulating clinical treatment plans and have regular case discussions. With close collaboration, both medical teams will have more experiences in ICWM consultations. With the experience accumulated, it certainly will benefit the future development of the ICWM services in terms of its application and coverage of disease areas.”
      
     The Senior CM practitioner at the Pok Oi Hospital-Hong Kong Baptist University Chinese Medicine Clinic cum Training and Research Centre (Yau Tsim Mong District), Mr Yau Kin-chung, said that traditional CM services in Hong Kong have primarily been outpatient-based. The ICWM model developed by the HA provides opportunities for authorised participating CM practitioners to review patients’ clinical data and reports. Such arrangement helps the CM practitioners obtain a comprehensive understanding of the patients’ conditions in which facilitating their formulation of the clinical treatment plans. Joint management of patients by the two medical teams under ICWM services can also promote multi-disciplinary knowledge exchanges and drive the service development, enabling patients to receive more comprehensive treatment and care.
      
     The ICWM services target eligible individuals aged 18 and above, who have been assessed by both the Western Medicine and CM teams at designated public hospital sites and considered suitable with fulfilling the programme criteria. Participation is voluntary, and the participation does not affect patients’ original treatment plans at the hospitals. With the funding support by the Government, patients receiving this service only need to pay a fee of $120 for each attendance of ICWM inpatient services (not including general fees for public hospital services), while Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients will be fully waived for the service fees under the programme.
      
     The HA expresses gratitude to the Government for the steadfast support on the development of ICWM services, and will dedicatedly develop an evidence-based and sustainable ICWM model in Hong Kong. In future, the HA will make effort to explore opportunities for further development of ICWM, leveraging the professional advantages of both sides to enhance treatment effectiveness so as to provide patients with more appropriate medical services. The HA will continue to devote its efforts in aligning with the national policy initiatives in promoting the high-quality development of CM in Hong Kong on all fronts with an aim to achieve the internationalisation of ICWM experience. 

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The Hospital Authority (HA) Chairman, Mr Henry Fan, welcomed the 2024-25 Budget announced by the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, at the Legislative Council today (February 28). The 2024-25 annual subvention for the HA will be $95.4 billion (including $93.5 billion recurrent), having increased by 2 per cent compared to the 2023-24 revised provision.

     Mr Fan was particularly grateful for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government’s increased subvention to the HA to enhance public healthcare services despite facing pressure on public finances. “With the immense support from our country and the HKSAR Government, the HA continues to strengthen its services, and provides suitable treatment and care to patients. Last year, the HA has launched a number of new services and programmes. For example, the Ambulatory Diagnostic Radiology Service Pilot Programme and other healthcare services at the Central Government Aided Emergency Hospital, which shortened the waiting time of patients significantly. Also, the HA also rolled out the Greater Bay Area Healthcare Talents Visiting Programmes and the Global Healthcare Talent Scheme, which attracted healthcare talents to serve in Hong Kong. The HA will continue to provide healthcare services that suit citizens’ convenience and needs.”

     The HA will step up its efforts in promoting the sustainable development of public healthcare, including introducing smart hospitals initiatives in different clusters, enhancing tele-health and drug delivery services in specialist out-patient clinics (SOPCs), and improving patients’ experience and operational flow with advanced technology. At the same time, the HA will enhance SOPCs service, including nurse and pharmacist led clinic service, thereby providing more treatment choices to patients.

     Mr Fan also thanked the Government for supporting the HA in coping with manpower attrition. The HA will continue to adopt multi-pronged measures to attract local healthcare talents and those from different places to join and serve in public hospitals. Besides, the HA will actively develop and retain talents through various measures. The HA had already established the HA Academy last year, in order to provide systematic training to its staff, striving to enhance multidisciplinary care, support the need of service expansion, and fostering staff’s professional development.

     The HA Chief Executive, Dr Tony Ko, also expressed his gratitude to the HKSAR Government for the support on service enhancement of public hospitals. “The HA will continue to actively press ahead with different hospital redevelopment and expansion projects, and various minor works projects in hospitals, so as to enhance the service capacity of public hospitals in tandem with the continuous growth in service demand for public healthcare services.”

     “Besides, public hospitals will open around 150 additional hospital beds in the next financial year, provide additional operating theatre sessions, Computer Tomography Scans and endoscopy sessions, and increase general out-patient clinic attendances. The HA is also grateful that the Government promotes the development of Chinese Medicine (CM), including by increasing the quota of government-subsidised CM out-patient services and extending integrated Chinese-Western medicine services.”

     In life-threatening diseases management, the HA will continue to strengthen its support to cancer patients, including enhancing chemotherapy and radiation therapy services. Cardiovascular diseases and neuroscience services will be also strengthened in order to provide multidisciplinary professional support. Meanwhile, resources will be reserved for the development of robotic-arm assisted systems for joint replacement surgery and angiography. Also, support to psychiatric patients will be strengthened by reinforcing the psychiatric in-patients service and recruiting more case managers to take care of the patients in the community.

     The HA will continue to develop personalised treatment service for patients in need, including the provision of faecal microbiota transplantation service for suitable patients with clostridium difficile infection. The HA will also enhance the genetic services, and continue to support the establishment of the Uncommon Disorders Registry, in order to better support the concerned patients.

     ​Mr Fan and Dr Ko once again thanked the HKSAR Government’s support to public healthcare services. The HA will utilise the subvention appropriately and strive to implement relevant policies and measures for the benefit of patients.

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     ​The spokesperson of the Hospital Authority (HA) today (December 1) reminds members of the public to stay alert to fraudulent calls.
      
     The HA received a report from the Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) today, which PWH was informed by members of the public that they received calls claiming to be calling from the PWH. The call was in the form of pre-recorded messages requesting the recipient to follow instructions to collect a document. The PWH has reported to the Police.
      
     The HA reiterates that hospital staff will contact patients by phone in person and provide relevant information to verify the identity of both parties. Members of the public are advised not to disclose personal information in unidentified phone calls and to report any suspected fraudulent calls to the Police.
 

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The Hospital Authority (HA) Chairman, Mr Henry Fan, welcomed the healthcare service-related measures included in “The Chief Executive’s 2023 Policy Address” delivered by the Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, today (October 25). It is believed that the measures will facilitate the HA in enhancing the quality of public healthcare service, establishing a healthy Hong Kong.

     The HA will fully collaborate with the Government’s policies, and continue to increase service capacity and improve quality of public healthcare in order to meet the rising demands. In addition to the measures on shortening the waiting time of stable new case booking in Medicine Specialist Out-patient Clinics, the HA will strive to shorten the waiting time of stable new case booking of two specialties, namely Ear, Nose and Throat, and Orthopaedics and Traumatology, by 10 per cent next year. The HA will continue to promote the Integrated Chinese-Western Medicine (ICWM) Programme by incorporating Chinese Medicine rehabilitation in the clinical framework for stroke care in-patient services to cover all clusters of the HA, launching a pilot programme on cancer care at Day Chemotherapy Centres, as well as exploring the extension of ICWM services to cover more disease areas, such as elderly degenerative diseases. In terms of mental health, the HA will optimise the ratio of case manager to patients with severe mental illness to no higher than 1:40 under the Case Management Programme, and maintain the median waiting time for new case triaged as Priority 1 (urgent) and Priority 2 (semi-urgent) at Psychiatric Specialist Out-patient Clinics at no longer than one week and four weeks respectively to strengthen the support to patients with mental illnesses.

     Under the support of the Government, the HA will continue to improve its healthcare services, by establishing a Hong Kong’s first Chest Pain Centre in Queen Mary Hospital in 2025 in accordance with national accreditation standards so as to improve the patient journey for patients with cardiovascular diseases, and to improve treatment outcome and increase survival rate. Also, in accordance to the Government’s measures in promoting fertility, the HA will set up a breastmilk bank and gradually increase public service quota for assisted reproductive services. Meanwhile, the Cluster Clinical Research Support Office is to be established to promote clinical research and trials in the HA.

     Mr Fan said, “Healthcare talents is the key to establish a healthy Hong Kong. The HA will continue attracting more healthcare talents and strengthening the exchange and co-operation through different programmes. Riding on the collaborative experience with the Guangdong Province, the HA will commence clinical healthcare staff exchange programme with Shanghai. Mutual exchange can facilitate a more holistic learning environment, and enhance healthcare service quality in the long run.”

     The HA also supports the Government to strategically procure healthcare services from suitable healthcare institutions in the Greater Bay Area, as this could alleviate the pressure on public hospitals and enable citizens to receive treatment sooner. Also, the exploration on standing organ transplant mutual assistance mechanism with the Mainland can increase the chance of patients on the waiting list in both places getting a transplant.

     Furthermore, the HA will resume the Hospital Accreditation Programme and adopt the “International Hospital Quality Accreditation Standards (China)” (2021 Version), to ensure that public hospitals are up to international hospital quality standards.

     Mr Fan expressed heartfelt appreciation for the Government’s support for the public healthcare service. The HA will strive to implement the initiatives for the benefit of patients.

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
 
     The Hospital Authority announces that as the Hong Kong Observatory has issued Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal No. 8, its general out-patient clinics, specialist out-patient clinics, allied health and other day services will be closed while the Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal No. 8 is in force. Patients, who have scheduled appointments, are advised to make a new appointment after the cancellation of the Tropical Cyclone Warning Signal No. 8. 
 
     Service of Accident & Emergency Department at public hospitals remains normal.