Hong Kong social welfare authorities have pledged to improve their care home respite services, demanding that operators remove unnecessary background and medical checks while vowing to issue warnings to those who fail to rectify the situation.
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The remarks from Social Welfare Department assistant director David Ng Wai-lung came on Friday, a day after the city’s ombudsman found some of the 46 facilities it investigated were unduly selective when admitting applicants for respite services and were underused.
Under the Social Welfare Department’s respite service schemes, elderly people or those with disabilities can sign up for residential or day care services subsidised by the government at care homes to alleviate the workload on carers. They have to undergo a basic health check before admission.
However, the Office of the Ombudsman found that 17 facilities required a meeting or home visit before accepting applications, and eight centres asked applicants to pay for extra medical examinations, such as X-rays, blood tests and urine tests.
“Such tests are unnecessary. We have demanded that care homes should not engage in such practices … Prior meetings and visits are not necessary to avoid adding burden on carers,” Ng told a radio show.
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“If we receive similar reports or find issues during our supervision, we will first issue a reminder. If there is no improvement, we will issue a warning.”