Global Financial Market Review

The Director of Audit on Wednesday pointed out a series of problems surrounding a health centre in Kwai Tsing, saying it has failed to achieve most of its targets since its opening in 2019.

Kwai Tsing District Health Centre is a pilot project funded by the government and operated by an NGO to provide primary healthcare services and educate the public on disease-prevention.

The Audit Commission said in a report that the attendance rate for some of the centre’s disease prevention classes were unsatisfactory.

It said the enrolment rate for one-third of the classes was below 50 percent, while dozens of classes were only attended by one person.

Separately, the auditor urged the centre to take measures to address the high turnover of staff, saying the turnover rate spiked to 101 percent last year.

It noted that three executive directors had quit since the health centre opened, with each of them serving for just a couple of months.

It also recommended the centre to step up promotion efforts, as a survey conducted previously found that only around a third of Kwai Tsing residents were aware of the facility.

In response, the Health Bureau said it agreed with the auditor’s recommendations.

It explained that the health centre’s services were disrupted due to the 2019 social unrest and the Covid-19 outbreak.

It said the health centre was required to cease or limit face-to-face services in order to prevent the transmission of the virus, adding that it had taken up anti-epidemic work which had compromised its capacity to provide services.