ince May 2009, HA has adopted hospital accreditation as a systematic framework to sustain its continuous quality improvement efforts. With joint efforts from the Food and Health Bureau, Department of Health, Hospital Authority and the Hong Kong Private Hospitals Association, a Steering Committee was set up to develop an accreditation system that can both apply in public and private hospitals. Hospital Accreditation programme is now adopted as a measure to improve quality, efficiency and patient safety, with a goal to strengthen public confidence on local medical services.

Five HA hospitals have awarded full accreditation by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards. They received outstanding achievement in management, operation and patients care which is an encouraging recognition of HA staff's collaborative efforts.

After a review of the programme carried out by the Steering Committee, the HA Board decided on 31 May 2011 to adopt hospital accreditation as a strategy to drive for continuous quality improvement, and to take following measures in its future implementation:

	enhance teamwork and sharing of initiatives from pilot hospitals in future implementation of accreditation;
	enhance IT system and technical support to relieve documentation work;
	establish a corporate database for commonly used policies and guidelines to avoid duplication;
	make reference to the systems and initiatives developed by pilot hospitals to reduce preparatory work;
	mobilize Head Office and cluster project teams to support other hospitals in accreditation preparation;
	form a liaison group to follow up the improvement progress and difficulties of survey recommendations by HAHO, hospitals and the accreditation agent;
	explore to increase clerical support for frontline clinical staff.

2.	Review the timeframe of accreditation implementation:
	Extend preparatory time of the next phase to five years to allow more time for preparation and communication;
	Postpone hospital consultancy gap analysis until April 2012.

HA Chief Executive Dr PY Leung gave his warm regards to various hospitals and staff who participated in the accreditation. He highly appreciated the extra work and efforts contributed by the colleagues. "Thanks for the hard work of everyone in the hospitals. Since we have launched the accreditation, a number of clinical services, back-up supports and management systems have been remarkably improved," he said.

"The accreditation can serve as our new goal to standardize our administration software. We got to familiarise with the current system and seek improvement. The result is rewarding, and the management has been paying much attention on this scheme," Mr Lam Kit-lun (APN, O&T, QEH).

"Everyone in our ward worked together to centralize and standardize the clinical procedures. Though we cannot find immediate solutions for some problems in one go, I believe this is a good start," Ms Lau Sau-wing (RN, Paed, QEH).

"It's a great opportunity for us to review our standard of service. We could obtain an international recognition and understand more about the operational procedures of other departments. To our surprise, the accreditation team really appreciates our new birth-ball. Extra workloads do result in anxieties and we've encountered challenges in terms of coordination. I suggest the system can be adjusted based on different situations," Ms Sharon Ng (DOM, O&G, QEH).

n response to the heavy workload of frontline staff, HA is seeking formal approval from the Board to implement enhanced interim measures for promotion and special allowances to retain doctors. The Authority also earmarked an additional HK$200 million in 2011 to strengthen the recruitment and retaining of nursing manpower to improve their working conditions and career prospects.

An E-poll was conducted to solicit the views of public hospital doctors on the special promotion mechanism and the enhanced honorarium arrangement in recognition of the excessive workload of frontline doctors. 61 per cent of the 1,107 participated doctors agreed to the enhance promotion mechanism, 13 per cent remained neutral, and 26 per cent disagreed. Besides, 92 per cent of respondents supported to set up a steering committee on Medical Manpower Review. It will be established to review the doctors' workload and manpower plan in the long term.

HA also plan to improve the work conditions of frontline nurses by recruiting more than 50 nurse consultants and 150 advanced practice nurses and experienced nurses on a part-time basis. They intend to issue special allowances for nurse graduates, alleviate the existing workload, and increase consecutive night shift allowances.

Since taken up the position as Chief Executive of HA, Dr PY Leung has taken part in more than 30 meetings and forums with staff over the past six months to understand the work conditions of doctors, nurses and allied health staff. He was impressed by the dedication and commitment of our colleagues, who willingly sacrifice their personal time for volunteer work. Dr Leung reiterated the importance of communication in staff meetings to find appropriate solutions. He said, "We're open to your problems so I encourage everyone to speak up. We may not be able to solve problems immediately but we can always have a discussion." He values spending time with staff and listening to their opinions on work.

o enhance healthcare support for patients with chronic diseases, the government launched the Shared Care Programme through the Hospital Authority. The programme first started with Sha Tin and Tai Po in the New Territories East Cluster (NTEC). It was then introduced to the Hong Kong East Cluster (HKEC). Positive feedback has been received.

The pilot programme offers patients medical service options outside the public healthcare system. Subsidies of up to HK$1,600 each year will be provided to patients receiving care from private medical practitioners through the use of electronic health vouchers.

Participants have found that the programme allows increased flexibility for out-patient treatment. They can select time slots that complement their schedules and make appointments in advance. They can also select clinics located close to their homes and can choose doctors from specialised backgrounds to deal with specific health conditions. The programme also offers quality treatment sessions with an emphasis on patient-doctor communication, to establish long-term relationships and achieve the objective of providing continuous and holistic care.