October 7, 2000
In response to media enquiries, a spokesman for the Department of Health (DH) said today (October 7) that 1,165 staff members from DH have applied for retirement, out of 5,124 eligible under the Voluntary Retirement (VR) Scheme.
"The figure represents about 22.7 per cent of the eligible staff of designated grades where there are identified or anticipated surplus."
The spokesman said that the retirees would help make surplus staff problem in DH more manageable and enable the department to implement its enhanced productivity programme and other cost-saving initiatives with greater flexibility.
"The 1,165 applicants are mainly from the workman, ward attendant and clerical grades. A total of 346 are DH staff and the remaining 819 are civil servants working in the Hospital Authority (HA) whose personnel management functions are the responsibility of DH.
"To ensure that the provision and quality of service will not be affected, DH will work closely with the Civil Service Bureau and HA to release the VR-takers in an orderly manner.
"As matters stand, neither DH nor the HA management envisage that the retirement of the VR-takers will create any problems to their delivery of quality service to the public."