Elderly Hongkongers to get health checks while receiving free food from community workers in new programme

Description

·         Polytechnic University will join Food Angel for community health monitoring programme targeting elderly residents

·         Community workers will upload data to online platform to be analysed by nurses for follow-up

 

Hong Kong Polytechnic University and a food distribution charity will launch a two-year community health monitoring programme targeting elderly residents, funded by the Li Ka Shing Foundation.

 

The university and Food Angel, operated by the Bo Charity Foundation, announced on Wednesday they would train 40 community workers to measure different health indicators of residents.

 

While delivering food to 100 elderly residents living in Sham Shui Po, the workers will record their vital signs, such as blood oxygen level, blood pressure, pulse and pain index. They will upload the data to an online platform to be analysed by nurses for follow-up action.

 

Dr Arkers Wong Kwan-ching, an assistant professor at PolyU’s School of Nursing and the programme leader, said the scheme was the first of its kind in Hong Kong.

“We want to take the first step and let the government see what we are doing,” he said.

 

The foundation donated HK$11.15 million (US$1.4 million) to finance the programme.

 

“The partnership is the demonstration of ‘the power of and’, which means the elderly will receive not only free food but also medical support,” Li, 95, said. “On the other hand, housewives who are Food Angel’s community workers and beneficiaries of free food become givers and takers of the services.”

 

Food Angel is one of the key suppliers of free meals in Sham Shui Po and has served about 700 low-income households and almost 1,000 elderly since 2014. Many of its community workers are also beneficiaries.

 

The e-platform will store the medical records of the elderly participants and automatically remind them to take their medication and go to appointments.

 

But Wong said the e-platform had no access to data stored in the government database, and nurses would have to manually import the participants’ records. The government’s eHealth system stores patients’ information, but only doctors can access it.

 

“As nurses, we don’t have access to data in the eHealth system, so we cannot bridge [our system and eHealth],” he said.

 

“We hope, with our study, the government realises that there is a lot to add to eHealth, such as health tips generated by artificial intelligence and receiving information from community nurses.”

 

The project is due to end in September 2025, when the PolyU team will evaluate its effectiveness to determine whether to expand it.