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The Hospital Authority (HA) will implement new arrangement in public hospitals from next Monday (March 26) to standardise the procedures in sending birth data of newborns to the Birth Registry of Immigration Department. The new arrangement will apply to all local and non-local mothers giving birth in public hospitals.
A spokesman for HA today (March 22) outlined the following objectives of the new arrangement:
- Standardise the hospital practice of sending birth returns to the Birth Registry
- Encourage the patient to settle all hospital bills as soon as possible
- Prioritise the resources to improve the hospital management
To comply with legislative requirement, public hospitals have to furnish the birth return of any newborn to the Birth Registry within 42 days upon delivery. Under the new standardised arrangement, birth returns will be sent to the Birth Registry within five weeks of birth, leaving seven working days in advance for the parents to apply for the birth certificate at the Birth Registry.
To improve hospital management, parents of the newborn are encouraged to settle all medical fees in the earliest possible. The birth data of the newborn would be sent to the Birth Registry as soon as the fees are fully settled, and the parents could apply for the birth certificate at the Birth Registry in seven working days after payment.
"The HA has already promulgated operational guidelines of the new arrangement to all hospital staff and briefing has also been conducted earlier to ensure smooth implementation. The new arrangement would be reviewed in three months," the spokesman said.
Ends/Thursday, March 22, 2007
Issued at HKT 19:19
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