Hospital Authority Convention 2021 Keynote Address by Dr Tony Ko Pat-Sing, Chief Executive of Hospital Authority 3 May 2021
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Hospital Authority Convention 2021 Keynote Address by Dr Tony Ko Pat-sing, Chief Executive of Hospital Authority 3 May 2021 Embracing the Past, Reaching Out for a Sustainable Future Chief Executive (The Honourable Mrs Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, GBM, GBS, Chief Executive of HKSARG), Professor Chan (Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee, Secretary for Food and Health), Mr Fan (Mr Henry Fan Hung-ling, HA Chairman), distinguished guests, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen – good morning. 1. It is my greatest pleasure to welcome you all to the 2021 Hospital Authority (HA) Convention. 2. Last year, we reluctantly cancelled the HA Convention in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, thanks to technology advancement and our dedicated support team, we are proud to launch this annual flagship event using a hybrid mode. Despite the limitations on cross-border travel, we are glad to have more than 50 eminent local and non-local speakers, joining us either in person or via virtual platform. I would also like to thank our Mainland and Macau counterparts who are joining us online today. My heartfelt gratitude in particular goes to Minister Ma of the National Health Commission for his thoughtful arrangement in delivering his congratulatory message to us via video. 3. This is the first HA Convention that I join after assuming the role of HA Chief Executive in 2019. I am excited to see that the Convention continues to 1 provide an excellent opportunity for colleagues and leading healthcare experts to share on a diverse array of knowledge and new ideas. 4. This year, HA is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Confucius once said that a person is able to establish himself at the age of thirty (三十而立). HA’s 30th Anniversary is indeed an opportune time for us to consolidate our past experience and prepare ourselves for the challenges ahead. 5. Today at this special occasion, I would like to quickly travel with you through the past, take a snapshot of the present, and offer a glimpse into our future. The First Three Decades of HA 6. As we stroll down the memory lane, I am sure many of us can recall the days in the 70’s and 80’s when Hong Kong’s public hospital service was under immense pressure due to increasing demand and community expectations. It was against this backdrop that HA was inaugurated on 1 December 1990 under the Hospital Authority Ordinance, and formally took over the management and control of all government and subvented hospitals in 1991. 7. Our Chairman Mr Henry Fan pointed out the critical challenge of escalating service demand in his welcome address. To illustrate this, our Accidents & Emergency (A&E) attendances have increased by more than 150% 1 from 1.25 million thirty years ago to over 2 million last year. Similarly, over the same period, our specialist outpatient attendances have more than doubled from 3.7 million to 7.6 million2. Adding to the challenge of the significant growth of service volume is the increasing complexity of disease management as a result of advances in technology and treatment. Taking ischaemic stroke as an example, there were not much effective acute treatments available in the 70’s and 80’s. Mainstay of treatment was aspirin, rehabilitation was less organised, and many patients have to suffer significant disability. Today, patients are provided with a full range of complex clinical services from ultra- urgent imaging, time sensitive hyper-acute therapies for reperfusion, 1 Number of A&E attendances: 1.25 million (1990-91, Annual Report); 2.05 million (HA Website) 2 Number of specialist outpatient attendances: 3.7 million (1990-91, Annual Report); 7.6 million (HA Website) 2 dedicated acute multidisciplinary team support, to professional rehabilitation and assistive aid, etc. 8. Over the past three decades, HA holds steadfast to its mission to provide high quality patient-centred healthcare services to the Hong Kong community. We have put in place many initiatives and service developments in terms of hardware and software. Believe it or not, I still sometimes dream about the days when I was a junior doctor, working in a hot and humid hospital ward without air-conditioning on a summer day, digging through piles of paper records to find the laboratory results for the patients! As we are now moving on with the development of Smart Care and Smart Hospital Projects for the coming years, I wish to take this opportunity to thank our predecessors who dared to dream big and pioneer a lot of great initiatives. I am really glad to see that this pioneer spirit continues to grow in HA and many more innovative ideas are budding. And many of our dreams today, I believe, will also come true very soon. Snapshot of the Current Dual Challenge in HA 9. Throughout the history of HA, we have been facing profound impacts of the escalating service demand arising from the growing and ageing population, and the high and increasing number of patients with chronic diseases. 10. If we take a look at the latest government projections, we can see that Hong Kong’s population will increase by around 7% from 7.5 million in 2020 to more than 8 million in 2036, with significant growth in the elderly population, with the percentage of elderly sharply rising from 18% to 30%. 11. Elderly people generally require more healthcare services. They have attributed to around half of our total patient days and A&E admissions, and one-third of our General Outpatient Clinic and Specialist Outpatient Clinic attendances. 12. The escalating service demand is also affected by an increasing prevalence of chronic diseases. Parallel to the ageing population and higher longevity is the rising occurrence of chronic illnesses, not only for the elderly population but also for middle-age citizens aged 40 to 64. According to the latest 3 projection, the number of patients with chronic diseases will increase by 50% from 2 million by end of 2019 to 3 million by end of 2039. 13. Through various measures implemented over the years, we managed to bring down the utilisation per capita of HA’s elderly inpatients and day patients by around 12% in the past ten years. However, the alarming fact is that the utilisation per capita of the middle-age group is on a sharp rising trend, with nearly 21% increase over the same period. We foresee that this increasing chronic disease prevalence in the middle-age group will cause a big impact on Hong Kong’s healthcare system. 14. Apart from the sharp rising trend of service demand in the coming decades, another huge challenge for HA is of course the unprecedented global pandemic of COVID-19. 15. Following the outbreak of the pandemic last year and activation of Emergency Response Level in all public hospitals, many of our non-emergency services were suspended or postponed in order to reserve HA’s manpower and hospital facilities for treatment of COVID patients. 16. We have been hard hit by waves of COVID-19 outbreak since last year. Thanks to the support from the government and our dedicated teams in fighting against the virus, our services have by now largely resumed to our usual level. Nonetheless, the previous service suspensions have inevitably created additional burdens to the already long waiting lists for our hospital services. 17. To a certain extent, HA has gained much experiences in managing major infection threats over the last three decades, including the bird flu, Human Swine Flu and notably SARS in 2003. 18. After the SARS experience, we have reinforced closer collaboration with the Department of Health and its Centre for Health Protection, and have further enhanced HA’s infection control facilities and emergency response systems. 19. On top of this foundation, and with special thanks to the strong support of the Central Government and the Hong Kong SAR Government, we have, in 4 response to the COVID-19 challenges, established the Community Treatment Facility at AsiaWorld-Expo in 2020 and the North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre earlier this year. With the concerted efforts of our colleagues, we are able to operate these additional facilities within short timeframe which have no doubt bolstered Hong Kong’s capacity to fight against COVID-19. Support from the Government 20. The staunch support of the Government is always the most reliable backer in our public healthcare service and its sustainable development. I would like to take this opportunity to express our most sincere gratitude to the Government for according high priority to healthcare services in its funding and policy initiatives over the years. In particular, we have the Government’s strong commitment of two 10-year Hospital Development Plans involving around HK$470 billion (roughly equivalent to US$60.5 billion) in total, additional funding allocations for the COVID-19 expenditures, the progressive triennial funding arrangement and the substantial increase in the annual subvention to HK$82.4 billion (about US$10.6 billion) to HA in 2021-223. Reaching Out for a Sustainable Future in HA 21. Looking ahead, the rapidly growing demand will quickly further outstrip the supply, and we foresee a major sustainability challenge to HA. 22. I am truly grateful that under the guidance of the HA Board, a special Task Group was established in December 2019 and led by our Chairman himself to critically examine major sustainability challenges facing HA, for formulating strategic directions for HA to cope with the challenges ahead. 23. I believe you already have an overview of our plan on HA’s sustainability from the video just now.