Page 163 - Hospital Authority Convention 2017

Symposiums

S13.3 Cultural Diversity 14:30 Convention Hall B

We All Come from Somewhere – Our Experience with Cultural Diversity
Ong KL
Department of Accident and Emergency, Tuen Mun Hospital and Pok Oi Hospital, Hong Kong HOSPITAL AUTHORITY CONVENTION 2017
Based on the data from 2011 Population Census, people of ethnic minority (EM) constituted 6.4% of Hong Kong’s population.
Limited proficiency in local languages, lower educational level or sometimes even illiteracy together with different cultural
beliefs and customs inevitably affect their integration to the community, health maintenance, as well as appropriate utilisation
of healthcare services.

Although EM patients accounts for only a small fraction of the overall attendance and admission to the public hospitals in
Hong Kong, certain hospitals have higher percentage of EM patients as people of ethnic minority tend to cluster in certain
geographical regions. The Accident and Emergency Department (AED) of Pok Oi Hospital (POH) and Tuen Mun Hospital (TMH)
have been handling a proportionately high percentage of EM patients. In 2013/14, about 8% of overall POH AED attendance
was from EM patients whose mother language is neither Chinese nor English, while the figure for TMH AED was 3%.
These groups of patients pose many challenges to our frontline healthcare workers, especially the barriers in communication
as a significant proportion speak neither Chinese nor English. Communication barriers pose potential risks and need to be
addressed. The differences in cultural and religion background require much effort for both patients and our healthcare
workers to understand and overcome. One’s culture and religion is often the foundation of one’s behaviour and concern;
and it may lead to failure of comprehending and managing the differences of another culture, leading to frustrations and
misunderstandings between different parties. Understanding these differences and taking measures to overcome them will
help us in our provision of healthcare services to these EM patients.

It is important to address these potential issues when managing EM patients. With our initiatives, we hope to narrow the gap
between different parties. Wednesday, 17 May

161