No ramps, and no way for many old folk to see doctor
Elderly residents in a Kowloon district can choose from nine private clinics to visit, but very few have been to any of them and it is not because they do not need a doctor. The reason is eight of those clinics have no wheelchair access and the one that does is too steep to use.
Another clinic, located on the top floor of the Tsz Wan Shan Shopping Centre, had wheelchair access, but it closed two months ago.
Tsz Wan Shan in Kowloon has a population of 80,000, but nearly a fifth, or some 15,000, of them are people aged 60 or above, who live in homes for the elderly, and public and private estates, Census and Statistics Department data from 2006 shows. And many of them use wheelchairs.
The clinics are located in Yuk Wah Street and Yuk Wah Crescent, the district's main streets.
A woman, who is aged in her eighties and lives in a home for the elderly in Tsz Lok Estate, is too frail to walk and uses a wheelchair. She said she had been to the clinic with wheelchair access, but it was not a pleasant experience. 'The ramp was quite steep and my daughter-in-law was not strong enough to push me in.
'The nurses there seemed unhelpful,' she said.
She said that if she fell ill in future, she would call an ambulance instead to be sent to an emergency room, even though a clinic is just five minutes' walk away.
Clinic doctors and their staff do not appear to be concerned.
A nurse at Dr Liu Yuet-sin's clinic said: 'We do not have a ramp and I do not know which clinic has it. You can look for it yourself.'
Dr Leung Man-chun, who runs a clinic on Yuk Wah Street, said no ramp was installed because the clinic was too small and on a slope. 'It is technically difficult to have a ramp. Even if the wheelchairs can get into the clinic, they cannot get into the consultation room,' he said.
He said that when there were showers, dirty rainwater came down the slope, so most of the clinic entrances were slightly elevated.
A nurse at Dr Wong Yuk-sen's clinic, whose entrance included two steps, said: 'the patient would have to walk a step or two to get into the clinic, or you would have to lift up the wheelchair.'
Wong Tai Sin district councillor Maggie Chan Man-ki urged the government to set up a public clinic.
Chan said she had received complaints about the absence of private clinics in Tsz Ching Estate, which is located near the top of a hill. Elderly residents, who fear falls because of their frailty, face a steep walk up a slope if they dare visit the clinics in Yuk Wah Street.
'This district has many senior citizens. One of the most important services for them are clinics. Some chronic patients have to see a doctor regularly,' she said.
Chan said the design of the neighbourhood was impractical and unfair to the elderly and the disabled. 'Not only are they unable to get to clinics, some cannot even leave their estates,' she said.
Direction Association for the Handicapped chairman Lee Yuen-tai said it was unfair wheelchair users were denied access to health care because of physical limits. 'Even when there are clinics nearby, they need to travel very far to see a doctor,' Lee said.
The government's barrier-free access guideline requires all buildings completed after 1997 to have wheelchair access, but existing private and administration buildings need not comply.
Lee said the government should subsidise private doctors to build ramps. 'The population is getting older. There will only be more wheelchair users,' he said.
The Equal Opportunities Commission examined 60 publicly accessible premises earlier this month. None of the five food markets across the city and only one sportsground among seven leisure facilities fully complied with the guidelines.
