11.01. What type of information is collected and analysed to assess performance of the healthcare system for people living with dementia? What is missing? | Hong Kong SAR

11.01. What type of information is collected and analysed to assess performance of the healthcare system for people living with dementia? What is missing? | Hong Kong SAR

22 Aug 2022

Hong Kong has some but not sufficient information to assess the performance of the care systems for people living with dementia.

On one hand, the Hospital Authority keeps regular records of death rates and life year lost due to dementia, as well as co-morbidities and medication profile of patients. The Financial Secretary regularly provides some reliable estimates for health care cost and LTC cost (though not all dementia-specific). Moreover, the Social Welfare Department and Hospital Authority are good sources for understanding available dementia service.

On the other hand, there is no up-to-date and regular monitoring mechanism for the followings: prevalence (the latest was in 2005), incidence, quality of life of people with dementia or carer, LTC cost with breakdowns of dementia service, service types, availability and care cost by the private LTC sector, prevalence of receipt and provision of unpaid care, and size and breakdown of dementia workforce (both healthcare and LTC).