The Health Bureau announced today that it has instructed the Hospital Authority (HA) to accord priority to taking forward reform work aimed at enhancing the HA’s governance and structure.

After examining a review report submitted by the HA in respect of the review conducted earlier in relation to systemic issues involved in hospital management, Secretary for Health Prof Lo Chung-mau said his bureau agreed with the direction of the 31 recommended measures and corresponding action plan.

“Confronted with pressures on the healthcare system due to an ageing population, a growing prevalence of chronic diseases and persistent increases in medical costs, we must deepen reforms regarding systemic and structural issues in overall public hospital management.”

He explained that the aim of carrying out such reforms is to make sure that the public healthcare system can provide the public with healthcare services with quality, safety and effectiveness in a sustainable manner and meet today's community needs while ensuring valuable healthcare resources are put to good use.

Prof Lo pointed out that the review is comprehensive in scope and covers a wide range of the HA's issues, namely governance, appraisal, accountability and distribution of responsibilities, operations, risk management, procedural compliance and more.

The review also involves multiple levels ranging from the HA Head Office to hospital clusters, hospitals departments and staff.

Prof Lo made it clear that the bureau has instructed the HA to implement various enhancement measures in a timely manner while monitoring the implementation progress and effectiveness on an on-going basis, and submitting progress reports to the bureau on a regular basis.

Additionally, the review report pointed to the need to examine whether the HA's existing governance and management structure can continue to meet the present-day needs and circumstances of the complex public hospital system.

In this connection, the HA will establish a Governance & Structure Reform Committee under the HA Board, with HA Board Chairman Henry Fan being the reform committee chairman, to steer the implementation of recommendations made in the review report regarding governance, accountability and distribution of responsibilities, and relevant reform work.

To ensure that timely policy directions and guidance will be given to the reform committee, the Permanent Secretary for Health and the Under Secretary for Health will serve as members of the reform committee.