Veteran paediatrician Dr Lam Ching-choi, the chairman of the Advisory Committee on Mental Health, said his team would review the process of screening, diagnosing and supporting dementia patients to address “a bottleneck” in the healthcare system. Dr Lam, who is also the former chairman of the government’s Elderly Commission and a member of the city’s top decision-making Executive Council, said under the current system “people suffering from dementia have to queue for a long time for diagnostic services at the Hospital Authority, which may delay their treatment and support from the community”. “This is the bottleneck we are facing,” he said.
The Health Authority said dementia patients commonly suffered from various other chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, on top of being susceptible to memory loss and prone to falls. “In order to use our resources flexibly, the authority will arrange for patients to visit general, internal medicine, geriatric or psychogeriatric outpatient clinics, or memory clinics, to receive services, so that they can receive joint consultations and treatments,” the authority said in response to questions from the Post. Lam’s observations about delays in care for elderly patients were underlined by the Jockey Club Centre for Ageing, which said those suspected of having dementia had to wait to be assessed by healthcare professionals before receiving support at the community and residential level.
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