LCQ21: Medical benefits for civil service eligible persons
5.7.2023

Following is a question by the Hon Lai Tung-kwok and a written reply by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, in the Legislative Council today (July 5): Question: Under the existing policy, save for paying certain fees as required, civil service eligible persons (CSEPs) are entitled to free diagnosis and treatment as well as medical services provided by the Hospital Authority (HA), and currently the HA has also arranged for 65 of its general outpatient clinics (GOPCs) to reserve priority discs for serving civil servants. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council: (1) whether it knows the respective numbers of person-times of (i) civil servants and (ii) other eligible persons using the HA's medical services (set out by general outpatient services, specialist outpatient services and accident and emergency departments' services), and the respective numbers of days for which they stayed in public hospitals, in the past three years; (2) whether it knows the respective average costs of providing (i) general outpatient services, (ii) specialist outpatient services, and (iii) daily inpatient services for each CSEP by the HA in each of the past three years; (3) whether it knows the supply and demand situation of the GOPCs' priority discs reserved for serving civil servants in each of the past three years; (4) whether it knows the proportion of the priority discs reserved for serving civil servants in the total number of GOPCs' service quotas in each of the past three years; (5) as it is learnt that since 2015-2016, the HA has conducted four rounds of redistribution of priority discs for serving civil servants for 11 GOPCs, whether the Government knows the details of the four rounds of redistribution; (6) as there are views that the current GOPCs' standing arrangement of reserving priority discs only for serving civil servants has often rendered other eligible persons unable to enjoy medical benefits in a timely manner, whether it knows if the HA has plans to improve such situation, so as to ensure that other eligible persons can actually enjoy the medical benefits to which they are entitled; if the HA has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and (7) as there are views that at present, serving civil servants sometimes are also not able to get priority discs for receiving diagnosis and treatment, and the situation is unsatisfactory, whether it knows if the HA has plans to improve the disc-distributing arrangement, so that they can receive treatment in a timely manner; if the HA has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that? Reply: President, The replies to the respective parts of the question are as follows: (1) The statistics on the utilisation of the Hospital Authority's (HA) medical services by serving civil servants and other eligible persons in the past three years are tabulated as follows: 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23 Serving civil servants Other eligible persons Serving civil servants Other eligible persons Serving civil servants Other eligible persons General outpatient (GOP) services attendances 258 000 345 000 324 000 348 000 259 000 302 000 Specialist outpatient (SOP) services attendances 328 000 839 000 355 000 923 000 356 000 955 000 Accident and emergency attendances 35 000 69 000 37 000 77 000 33 000 74 000 Inpatient patient days 41 000 293 000 43 000 312 000 38 000 307 000 Remarks: The number of attendances and the number of patient days are rounded to the nearest thousand. (2) The cost of providing relevant medical services to civil service eligible persons (CSEPs) by the HA in the past three years, calculated on the basis of utilisation of GOP services, SOP services (including related diagnostic services) and inpatient services, as well as the average unit costs, are tabulated as follows: 2020-21 ($ billion) 2021-22 ($ billion) 2022-23 (Revised Estimate) ($ billion) GOP services 0.365 0.398 0.450 SOP services 1.965 2.054 2.194 Inpatient services 2.968 3.083 3.250 Remarks: The cost estimate for 2022-23 has taken into account the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic on service costs. It must be noted that the above figures are calculated based on average unit costs and do not accurately reflect the actual costs. The HA has not calculated the cost of each treatment case, hence it is unable to provide more accurate cost figures. (3) and (4) The statistics of priority discs reserved for serving civil servants in the HA's general outpatient clinics (GOPCs) in the past three years are tabulated as follows: 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23 Total number of priority discs in GOPCs reserved for serving civil servants 556 000 533 000 342 000 (Provisional) Utilisation rate of priority discs in GOPCs reserved for serving civil servants 34% 49% 58% Proportion of priority discs in GOPCs reserved for serving civil servants to the total number of discs in GOPCs 10% 9% 7% In view of the situation of COVID-19 epidemic, including the activation of some GOPCs as designated clinics for COVID-19 confirmed cases, some GOPCs had adjusted the arrangements for providing priority discs to serving civil servants during the epidemic. The prevailing number of priority discs has returned to the level prior to the epidemic, i.e. about 560 000 annually. (5) Of the 73 GOPCs under the HA, 65 of them have reserved priority discs for serving civil servants. To enhance the priority discs arrangement in the GOPCs and having regard to the utilisation of priority discs in various GOPCs, the HA has in the past redistributed the priority discs from clinics with lower demand to those with higher demand with a view to better utilising the priority discs resources and enabling serving civil servants to receive appropriate medical services. Since 2015-16, the HA has so far conducted four rounds of redistribution to re-allocate the number of priority discs for 11 GOPCs. Details are at Annex. The HA will continue to closely monitor the utilisation of priority discs, and will re-allocate the distribution of priority discs if needed. (6) The purpose of providing priority discs for civil servants is to enable them to receive medical treatment with the use of priority discs and return to work, if considered fit, as early as possible to maintain normal workforce. To avoid wastage of resources, unused priority discs will be allocated to other persons (including other eligible persons) where practicable. We currently have no plan to change the above-mentioned civil servants priority discs arrangement. (7) According to the utilisation in the past three years, the overall utilisation rate of priority discs for civil servants in GOPCs is lower than 60 per cent on average. If the priority discs of individual GOPCs have been fully utilised on a day when serving civil servants visited the clinics, they should be able to obtain priority discs for consultation and treatment in GOPCs in the vicinity without difficulty. Same-day booking of priority discs by telephone is available for serving civil servants at seven designated clinics, including Central Kowloon Health Centre, Kwun Tong Community Health Centre, Lady Trench GOPC, Lek Yuen GOPC, Sai Ying Pun Jockey Club GOPC, Violet Peel GOPC and Yau Ma Tei Jockey Club GOPC, for the convenience of patients to seek treatment. Meanwhile, the HA is exploring adding a new function of booking priority discs for civil servants in its HA Go mobile application to facilitate appointment-making by civil servants.