The Labour Department today rolled out the Pilot Rehabilitation Programme for Employees Injured at Work, providing injured construction employees private out-patient rehabilitation treatment services with a view to facilitating their early recovery and return to work.

Mainly funded by the Government, the three-year pilot programme targets injured construction employees. Participants only need to pay the same fees as public hospitals or public clinics to receive private out-patient rehabilitation treatment services.

They can also claim reimbursement of the medical expenses from their employers in accordance with the Employees' Compensation Ordinance (ECO). Participants will each have a designated person to follow up with their rehabilitation treatment and return-to-work arrangements.

The rehabilitation treatment services they can receive include medical treatment provided by general practitioners, family physicians, orthopaedic doctors or occupational physicians, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and imaging examination services.

The department pointed out that the pilot programme is beneficial to both injured construction employees and employers in a case where injured employees can receive rehabilitation treatment services early, preventing work injuries from developing into chronic conditions.

Meanwhile, the early recovery and return to work of employees can also help maintain productivity.

The Government has engaged a subsidiary of Human Health Holdings to implement the pilot programme. The organisation, in collaboration with its strategic partner, CUHK Medical Centre, has established the Work Injury Rehabilitation Office (WIRO) to provide multidisciplinary rehabilitation treatment, case management and return-to-work arrangement services under the supervision of the department.

Injured employees must meet some criteria to participate in the pilot programme, including that their work injuries happened on or after September 1, 2022 and they were engaged in the construction industry at the time of the work injury.

Other criteria included are that they sustained a musculoskeletal injury as a result of the work injury or contracted a musculoskeletal occupational disease prescribed under the ECO and they have been absent from work for six weeks or more, or are expected to be absent from work for six weeks or more because of the work injury.

The department will preliminarily identify suitable injured construction employees and contact them to introduce the pilot programme based on the reported work injury cases.

Injured employees must undergo a clinical assessment by a case doctor to ascertain that their injuries are suitable for treatment under the pilot programme.

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