情繫港怡             
GHKConnect           

I am pleased to share with you that many of our staff are satisfied with what the hospital has done in its fight against COVID-19 as revealed by the recent Pulse Survey. The results show that 88% of the respondents felt that the hospital has provided necessary personal protective equipment for staff, and a great majority of staff agreed that their teams worked well to support each other and communication across teams was effective. At the same time we have heard your views on a number of aspects, and based on your feedback, we have set out the action items to be taken by relevant departments.  Thank you for taking the time to share with us your comments to help us understand your needs better and give you the right support.

On the clinical front, our teams have also been working hard to innovate and make further development in our service. Further development of the fast track recovery protocol adopted by our Joint Replacement Centre has recently achieved another great milestone of enabling patients to walk out of our OT recovery area in just one hour after surgery. Also playing a crucial part in this remarkable achievement is our recently introduced pre-anaesthesia Clinic through which our anaesthesiologists provide patients with comprehensive pre-operative anaesthetic assessment to enhance patient safety and ensure that patients are in their best possible state for surgery. Striving to bring innovation to our services and achieve better clinical outcomes for patients will continue to be the direction to go for GHK.

Earlier in the month we celebrated International Nurses Day to honour our everyday heroes. This year, senior management of IHH Healthcare and country leaders including myself took up the challenge of singing our appreciation for our nurses. While I hope that our nurses have enjoyed watching this special token of thankfulness, please be reassured that you will continue to receive all necessary support to get through any adverse moments, and as a member of IHH, GHK will continue to be backed up by the Group as it strives to be the world’s most trusted healthcare services network.  

Looking ahead to the second half of the year, situation and measures in Hong Kong may continue to be fluid depending on how the pandemic may develop in different parts of the world. For GHK, we will need to be prepared to adapt ourselves to a “new normal”. This will mean some of our protocols may be amended to a new standard, and some workflows and practices may be modified to meet the changing expectations from patients, doctors, business partners etc. Meanwhile, GHK will continue with its growth strategy and recruit staff to support services where there is clear demand. As we will try our best to ramp up our services in the coming months, I call for your full support to help GHK thrive and shine.  

We are proud to share that our Joint Replacement Centre (JRC), in conjunction with the recently-introduced pre-anaesthesia clinic (PAC), has made another great achievement in enhancing recovery speed of patients. With the Centre’s further-developed fast track approach, a patient in his 60s was able to walk out of the operating theatre to a ward one hour after a total knee replacement.  
 

Since its launch in late 2018, the Centre has performed more than 450 joint replacement surgeries and has showcased excellent clinical outcomes and patient recovery with an exceptionally low complication rate of only 0.3% for total knee replacement, which is above local and international standards. 

Being currently the only private regular PAC in Hong Kong, the clinic specialises in providing patients with comprehensive anaesthetic pre-operative assessment to enhance patient safety and ensure that patients are in their best possible state for surgery. 
 

We are proud that GHK has been voted for the second year running Best Hospital by Hong Kong Living Awards 2020. We are thankful for the continued support from readers of Hong Kong Living, a Hong Kong Southside community publication. 

Going forward, we will continue to innovate and provide high-quality healthcare services and meet the needs and expectations of the patients and communities we serve. 

Our “On-the-spot Recognition” for the month of May goes to our Microbiology team! Over the past few months, the team has made exceptional effort in sourcing COVID-19 test kits and reagents, amid global shortage of these supplies, to establish GHK's capability to provide virus testing service necessary to meet patients’ requests, facilitate admission screening, and help mitigate community transmission of the disease. Despite the stress and pressing timelines, the team achieved great success in making the different test platforms available and delivering quality and efficient COVID-19 laboratory testing for patients.  
 

Since the introduction of the 5-Ups (ie stand up, suit up, speak up, stay up and step up) training workshop at GHK, the course has been attended by managerial, general and frontline colleagues in an effort to establish consistently high service standards and a desirable service culture. Subsequent to receiving the necessary skills and knowledge from colleagues in Singapore, our three colleagues from Service Excellence team and Orthopaedic Ward have been qualified as local trainers to host the workshops at GHK.  

More local trainers will be identified in the near future. The next 5-Ups training workshop will be organised on 9 June. Stay tuned!