The Hospital Authority said on Monday that the use of endoscopes to help patients with swallowing exercises would be rolled out across all clusters from next year.

Since last year, Tung Wah Hospital has been using what it described as a fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing, so patients can monitor their swallowing in real time and learn how to better control their muscles.

This method was being tested to see how well a patient could swallow by looking at the coordination of muscles, and to work out the best treatment plan.

A speech therapist at Tung Wah Hospital, Jacky Mo, said the method could help patients quickly regain their swallowing skills.

"[For example], this is a brain stem stroke case. The median time for recovery to [remove] the gastric tube is about 140 days, but for this patient, it's just about two months of rehabilitation time," he said.

Ripley Wong, speech therapy cluster coordinator of the Hong Kong West Cluster, said six out of seven clusters had adopted the method, and the remaining New Territories West Cluster would start using it next year.

She said a wide range of patients were suitable for using the endoscopes.

"We are actually covering not just stroke patients. For example, at acute hospitals, we are doing [this for] intensive care unit patients who may [require] intubation," she said.

"We do [this for] geriatric patients, elderly patients with dementia... and some hospitals are also doing [this] in outpatient settings with like nasopharyngeal carcinoma, or other head and neck cancer patients."

Wong added that the HA was looking into using the method on other rehabilitation services, such as providing voice training for patients with voice disorders.