Health Dept Blasted For Poor Student Programme

The Ombudsman, Connie Lau, has criticised the Department of Health for turning a blind eye to the persistently low attendance rates for a health programme it runs for primary and secondary students.

The department spends HK$200 million a year running 12 “student health service centres” to assess students’ physical and psychological conditions.

But an Ombudsman investigation found that more than 200,000 students failed to show up for their annual health screenings. For a number of years, the attendance rate only reached about 65 percent.

Lau said the Department of Health never looked into the reasons behind the students’ absences.

“They should also look into the reason leading to this very low attendance rate. For example, is the content not good enough to attract the students or the parents? … But unfortunately this was not done,” she said at a press conference on Tuesday.

But Lau said the department had started looking into the matter after the Ombudsman office intervened.

The watchdog also criticised the department for failing to follow up on students with psychological problems.

It found that in cases where a student’s psychological health required attention but a referral was not needed, the centres would not notify parents. Instead, it would ask the student to deliver the assessment report to their parents themselves.

The Ombudsman doubted whether young students would be capable of understanding and accurately conveying to their parents the medical staff's explanations and recommendations.

Meanwhile, for cases that were referred to specialists, the department would suspend its follow up action until the student attended their next annual assessment at the centres. However, many students did not show up again.

The Ombudsman urged the department to take a more proactive approach in following up on these cases to ensure students in need get proper attention, so that they don't “fall through the gaps in the system”.

In response, the Department of Health says it will send text messages to parents, to remind them of their children's upcoming assessments and to advise those who fail to attend to make new appointments.

It says it will also set up a website where parents will be able to download their children's health reports, and will follow up on students who have been referred to specialists.