Minutes of the 7thMeeting of

Culture, Leisure & Social Affairs Committee (2016-17)

Central and Western District Council

Date / : / 2 March 2017 (Thursday)
Time / : / 2:30 pm
Venue / : / Conference Room
14/F, Harbour Building
38 Pier Road, Central, Hong Kong

Present:

Chairman

Mr CHAN Chit-kwai, BBS, JP*

Vice-chairman

Mr YEUNG Hoi-wing*

Members

Mr CHAN Choi-hi, MH / (2:30 pm – 5:33 pm)
Mr CHAN Ho-lim, Joseph / (4:05 pm – 5:37 pm)
Mr CHAN Hok-fung, MH / (2:30 pm – 6:45 pm)
Ms CHENG Lai-king / (2:49 pm – 6:44 pm)
Mr HUI Chi-fung / (3:36 pm – 6:29 pm)
Mr LEE Chi-hang, Sidney / (2:38 pm - end of the meeting)
Miss LO Yee-hang / (2:30 pm – 2:59 pm)
(4:41 pm - end of the meeting)
Mr NG Siu-hong*
Ms SIU Ka-yi*
Mr YEUNG Hok-ming*
MrYIP Wing-shing, BBS, MH, JP / (2:30 pm - 6:29 pm)
Co-opted Members
Ms CHEUNG Kai-yin / (2:30 pm – 6:29 pm)
Mr IP Yik-nam*
Mr LEE Man-sing*
Mr SHAM Chi-hang, Christopher*

Remarks: *Members who attended the whole meeting

( )Time of attendance of Members

Guest

Item 5
Dr Leo CHAN
Mr Kelvin CHENG
Dr Welchie KO Wai-kit
Mr WONG Chun-wai / Senior Manager (Transformation Projects), Hospital Authority
Manager (Transformation Projects), Hospital Authority
Deputy Cos (Training & Quality) & Consultant In-charge, Hospital Authority
Public and Community Relations Officer, Queen Mary Hospital
Item 6
Dr Welchie KO Wai-kit
Mr WONG Chun-wai / Deputy Cos (Training & Quality) & Consultant In-charge, Hospital Authority
Public and Community Relations Officer, Queen Mary Hospital
Item 7
Ms KO Wan-chi, Wendy
Ms TSE Ching
Mr LEE Siu-tak, Derek
Mr HUI Kar-nung
Ms CHOI Suk-kuen, Shirley
Ms ZHAO Yee, Emily / Senior Agricultural Officer (Crop Development), Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department
Agricultural Management Officer (Farm Modernization), Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department
Chief Executive Officer (Commuity Relations) 2, Environmental Protection Department
Chief Health Inspector 1, Central/ Western District Environmental Hygiene Office, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department
Senior Manager (Cultural Services) Hong Kong West, Leisure and Cultural Services Department
Manager (Hong Kong West) Marketing, Programme andDistrict Activities, Leisure and Cultural Services Department
Item 8
Mrs KWOK WONG Mun-yi
Mr Clark CHAN / Senior School Development Officer (Central Western and Southern) 2, Education Bureau
Senior School Development Officer (Central Western and Southern) 6, Education Bureau
Item 9
Ms CHAN Shuk-hing, Daphne
Ms YIP Wai-ting, Wendy / Senior Librarian (Central & Western), Leisure and Cultural Services Department
Librarian (Shek Tong Tsui Public Library), Leisure and Cultural Services Department
Item 10
Miss Katty LAW
Mr Charlton CHEUNG / Convenor, Central and Western Concern Group
Member, Sai Wan Concern
Item 11
Ms Rebecca NGAN
Ms Fiona WOODHOUSE / Community Development Manager, Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Deputy Director (Welfare), Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Item 12
Mr CHAN On-ting, Eddy
Ms NGAI Oi-fong, Jennifer / Senior Manager (External Affairs), Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority
Manager (External Affairs), Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority
Item 13
Dr Cissy YU
Ms Katherine M Y CHAN / Hospital Chief Executive, Tung Wah Hospital
General Manager (Admin Services), Tung Wah Hospital
Item 14
Ms LEE Ching-nga
Ms CHAN Ka-wing
Ms CHEUNG Chi-ting, Candy
Ms CHAU Lai-har / Vice-chairlady, Hong Kong Central and Western District Women Association
Head,HKSKH St. Matthew’s Neighbourhood Elderly Centre
Social Worker, HKSKH St. Matthew’s Neighbourhood Elderly Centre
Social Work Assistant, Caritas Community Centre- Caine Road
In Attendance:
Mrs WONG HO Wing-sze, Susanne, JP
Ms WONG Suet-yi, Penny / District Officer (Central and Western)
Assistant District Officer (Central and Western)
Ms YEUNG Wing-shan, Grace / Senior Executive Officer (District Council), Central and Western District Office
Mr CHU Kam-sing, Daniel / Assistant District Social Welfare Officer (Central Western, Southern and Islands) 2, Social Welfare Department
Mr WATT Wai-yeung, Edwin / Senior Community Relations Officer (Hong Kong West/Islands), Independent Commission Against Corruption
Mrs KWOK WONG Mun-yi / Senior School Development Officer (Central Western and Southern) 2, Education Bureau
Dr WONG Man-ching, Anna / Senior Medical and Health Officer (Community Liaison) 2, Department of Health
Mr CHAN Chun-ping / Neighbourhood Police Co-ordinator, Police Community Relations Office, Central District, Hong Kong Police Force
Mr CHAN Chun-wah / Neighbourhood Police Co-ordinator, Police Community Relations Office, Western District, Hong Kong Police Force
Ms CHOI Suk-kuen, Shirley / Senior Manager (Cultural Services) Hong Kong West, Leisure and Cultural Services Department
Ms ZHAO Yee, Emily / Manager (Hong Kong West) Marketing, Programme andDistrict Activities, Leisure and Cultural Services Department
Ms CHAN Suk-fan, Bianca / Deputy District Leisure Manager (District Support) Central and Western, Leisure and Cultural ServicesDepartment
Secretary
Miss MAN Sum-yi, Annie / Executive Officer (District Council) 5, Central and Western District Office

Absent with Apologies:

Mr CHEUNG Kwok-kwan, JP

Mr KAM Nai-wai, MH

Ms LAU Wai-yan,Vienna

Openingremarks

The Chairman welcomed all to the 7th Meeting of the Culture, Leisure & Social Affairs Committee (CLSAC) (2016-2017) under the Central and Western District Council (C&W DC). The Chairmanwelcomed to the meeting Mr WATT Wai-yeung, Senior Community Relations Officer (Hong Kong West/Islands) of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, who was replacing Ms Doris CHUN; and Ms CHAN Suk-fan, Deputy District Leisure Manager (District Support) Central and Western of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department,who was replacing Ms CHOW Pui-shan. He also thanked Ms CHUN and Ms CHOW for their past attendance at CLSAC meetings to assist in the discussion and answer Members’ queries.

Item 1 – Adoption of the agenda

2.Members had no comments on the agenda, the Chairman announced that the agenda was adopted.

Item 2 – Confirmation of the minutes of the 6th meeting of CLSAC (2016-17)

3.Members had no comments on the draft minutes of the 6th meeting of CLSAC. The minutes of the meeting were confirmed.

Item 3 – Action checklist on matters arising from the 6th CLSAC meeting (2016/2017)

(C&W CLSAC Paper No. 11/2017)

4.Members noted the action checklist on matters arising from the 6th CLSAC meeting and had no further comments.

Item 4 – Chairman’s report

5. In 2016/17, C&W DC had approved a total funding of $94,200 for 10 applications related tocivic education for organisingvarious civic education activities within the district, includingpromotion of national education, social harmony and democratic education.

6. The “Culture in the District 2017/18” Programme would openly invite different arts and cultural groups to perform in the district so that residents could enjoy top-quality, high-standard performances. Informal meetings would be held later to examine the applications submitted. The date had yet to be decided.

7. The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority had sent letters to the chairpersons of the CLSAC of the 18 districts inviting them to attend the consultation forum on the Hong Kong Palace Museum Project, which would be held on 6 March from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm at the Multi-purpose Hall on 3/F of the City Gallery.

Item 5 - General Outpatient Clinic Public-Private Partnership Programme

(C&W CLSAC Paper No. 12/2017)

(2:40pm – 3:10pm)

8. Dr Leo CHAN, Senior Manager (Transformation Projects) of the Hospital Authority (HA), briefed Members that the General Outpatient Clinic Public-Private Partnership Programme (the Programme) launched in mid-2014nowcovered 12 districts. In 2017-18, the Programmewould be further extended to four new districts (including the Central and Western District).

9. Mr Kelvin CHENG, Manager (Transformation Projects) of HA,presented the contents of the Programme with PowerPoint and reported on the progress of its implementation. He said that in addition to providing patients with more choices, enhancing patients’ access to primary healthcare services and providing some relief toHA’s general outpatient services, the Programme could also help to foster long-term patient-doctor relationship under the family doctor concept and promote the development of territory-wide Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHRSS) in Hong Kong. The target group of the Programme wasHA’s existing General Outpatient Clinic(GOPC)patients having hypertension and/or diabetesmellitus (with or without hyperlipidemia). Eligible patients might choose to receive treatment and medications in private clinics, paying only the same HA general outpatient fee for each consultation. The participating private doctors would provide up to 10 subsidized consultations per year for each participating patients, and receive a maximum total annual service fee of up to $3,034 which included the HA general outpatient fee (currently $45)paid by the patients to the private doctors direct after each consultation. HA had set up Help Desks in the districts concerned and a dedicated telephone hotline to handleenquiries on the operation details of the Programme, and to provide support to both participating private doctors and patients. If needed, participating patients mightopt to switch private doctors or withdraw from the Programme and return to HA’sGOPCs for follow-up treatment at any time, upon giving reasonable notice. Since the implementation of the Programme, the operation had been generally smooth. As at the end of January 2017, a total of 212 private doctors had participated in the Programme. From 2017-18, the Programme would be further extended to four new districts, including the Central and Western District, Islands, Tai Po and Tsuen Wan. It would be launched in the remaining two districts (Yau Tsim Mong and North District) in 2018-19. Upon the roll-out of the Programme to 18 districts, it was estimated that a total of about 35000 patients would be benefitted. HA would continue to closely monitor the implementation of the Programmeand keep in view the feedbackfrom the community, private doctors, patients and other stakeholders. HA looked forward to working with the District Council (DC)in each district to solicit comments on the Programme and support in further promotingparticipation of patients and private doctors. HA hoped that the Programme would enable patients to access private medical services so that private doctors couldhelp to improve the health of the general public and relieve the imbalance between the public and private healthcare systems.

10. Dr CHAN of HA added that patients participating in the Programme might choose participating private doctors in other districts as their family doctors.

11. The Chairmaninvited discussion on the paper. Comments made by Members were as follows:

(i) Mr CHAN Hok-fung believed that the Programme could help relieve the pressure on public hospitals. He asked whether the actual waiting time had been shortened since the implementation of the Programme and what improvement in waiting time was expected after the implementation of the Programme.

(ii) Mr CHAN Choi-hi supported the Programme but believed that HA should review and assess its effectiveness in due course. He asked about the incentives to attract eligible patients to join the Programme, how private doctors thought of the Programme and whether there was any way to attract more doctors to participate. He asked whether the Programme could include element of specialist treatment. He wanted to know if HA had any estimated figure of participating patients in the Central and Western District and whether that figure was any different from those of other districts. In addition, he proposed to include Chinese medicine and acupuncture treatment services in this Programme.

(iii) Ms CHENG Lai-king considered that HA should step up publicity and promotion, assisting in particular those who had joined the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme. She said she supported expansion of the Programme to cover specialist and Chinese medicine services. She also asked where patients could find the list of doctors.

(iv) The Vice-chairman said that the Programme was very popular in the districts where it had already been implemented. It was hoped that when the Programme was implemented in the Central and Western District, more choices would be available to patients. He said participating patients could have up to 10 consultations in a year, and asked what could be done if the consultations were over the limit. He hoped the eligibility criteria for participation could be broader. In addition, he asked whether the authority had considered the acceptance level of private doctors because the workloads of many private doctors were pretty heavy nowadays.

(v)Mr SHAM Chi-hang asked if Queen Mary Hospital (QMH) had implemented the Programme asQMHstretched from the Central and Western District to the Southern district. Many elderly people mistakenly believed that they were asked to consult at private doctors because public hospitals did not want to follow up their cases. Some also thought that they had to pay extra for the expensive fees, which stopped them from participating in the Programme. He opined that HA should step up publicity. In addition, quite a number of people had the habit of visiting the same doctor. Therefore, he suggested that HA should first gather a list of doctors who were interested in joining the Programme and then promotedthem to eligible participants.

(vi)The Chairman declared that he was a member of the HA Hong Kong Regional Advisory Committee. He supported the Programme and hoped that the Programme could be further implemented in the future. In his opinion, HA should encourage more private doctors to participate. He asked whether the Programmecould effectively shorten the waiting time and from which source members of the public could get the list of participating doctors. Regarding eHRSS, he asked whether non-participating private doctors could have access to the patients’ medical records through the eHRSS platform.

12. Dr Chanof HA added that HA would invite private doctors to participate about 3 to 4 months prior to the implementation of the Programme in each district. Eligible patients were informed of the details of the Programme and the list of participating doctors in the invitation letters sent later on. He said that patients in the Central and Western District would receive a list of participating doctors in the Central and Western District and the Southern District. Patients might also enquire about the list of participating private doctors in other districts through the hotline. He reiterated that the purpose of the Programmewas to give patients more choices. Participating patients might opt to switch private doctors or withdraw from the Programme and return to GOPCs for follow-up. In order to attract more private doctors to participate in the Programme, HA would call the private doctors one by one after issuing invitation letters and organise talks to explain the details of the Programme to them. For the talk held earlier on in the Central and Western District, more than 20 doctors had attended. He said patients could learn more through the briefing sessions. Based on past experience, the Programme was generally well received by patients. Some 70% of the patients who attended the briefing session submitted their applications on the spot. He pointed out that the idea of the Programme was to provide family doctor services to patients. At the same time, patients could follow up their chronic and episodic diseases with the same doctor. Since the implementation of the Programme, the average number of consultations per patient per year was 6 to 7 times. If the number of consultations exceededthe quota of 10, the patient might elect to continue at his own expenses or visit HA’sGOPCs until the quota of 10 times restarted next year.

13. Dr KO Wai-kit, Deputy Cos (Training & Quality) & Consultant In-charge ofQMH,said that QMH was in the Southern District and the Central and Western District and the Programme had already been launched in the Southern District last year. HA would try their best to explain to patients the purpose of the Programme and respect the decision of the patients concerningthe Programme. Most of the patients attending the briefing session had expressed their willingness to participate. He pointed out that patients could be followed by acquainted private doctors through this Programme, and the consultation hours available were also relatively longer.

14. Mr CHENG of HA pointed out that HA doctors and participating private doctors could exchange medical records of patients through eHRSS. HA had completed a mid-term review of the Programme in the first quarter of 2016. Based on the opinions of patients, doctors and relevant organisations, proposed improvements to the Programme were made in four areas includingsupply arrangements for drugs, IT platforms, operational issues and communication platform for stakeholders. The relevant proposals had been gradually adopted since the third quarter of last year. These included the inclusion of drugs (such as gastric medicine and anti-inflammatory painkillers) in the categories of drugs to care for related health problems of the patients; computer platform for smoother operation of doctors; and enhanced liaison with various stakeholders.

15. Dr CHAN of HA said that HA held an open attitude towards studying the provision of specialist services under Public-Private Partnership Programme (PPP). HA would continue to communicate with the public and patient organisations, and work closely with relevant stakeholders to explore the possibility of implementing other new PPPs in the future.