Press Releases
Transcript of SFH on live poultry trade and healthcare reform
Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and
Health, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session at the Legislative Council
Building today (July 7):
Reporter: Chicken farmers are demanding more compensation. Are they being
unreasonable? Could the problem of older chickens be solved?
Secretary for Food and Health: According to our record from the market, over
120,000 so-called old chickens have already been sold, so I think there is a
demand for chickens in our community right now. There is also an opportunity
for more chickens to be sold in the coming weeks. In the discussion with the
farmers, we have already stated the rationale and relaxed some of the
criteria for compensation. So what we have proposed for them to receive is a
very reasonable amount and to some extent I think it is considered also
generous.
Reporter: Is the arrangement (no overnight stocking of live poultry at
retail outlets) working so well that in the end we may not have to buy back
all their licences?
Secretary for Food and Health: At the moment, we have set the percentage to
85% of retailers in case they want to terminate their business and receive
their compensation. In case there are actually more people who like to stay,
of course, we will have to let them stay and let the market continue the
current operation and not allowing any live chicken overnight.
Reporter: Is it likely?
Secretary for Food and Health: We have to give the trade some time to
consider. We let them consider until July 24. The Finance Committee of the
Legislative Council will also need to decide tomorrow whether the package is
feasible and also be able to release the funds as soon as the proposal is
being passed. The decision rests with the Finance Committee right now.
Reporter: How do you respond to the accusation that the Government is
turning a blind eye to the bottleneck problem we are seeing with the health
care system as a measure to push the public to accept mandatory insurance?
Secretary for Food and Health: Like any other public system, there is always
a bottleneck if the service is heavily subsidised. The current way of
handling bottlenecks is to have a good triage system so that those who are
in need and urgently in need will be looked after immediately or be given
priority. The system has been working very well. We will be looking at
different types and areas of bottleneck, and see whether some injection of
funds or resources are necessary, like the cataract programme that we have.
So far almost a thousand patients have undergone surgery under the programme
and they are all quite satisfied with the outcome.
Reporter: But is the Government leaving the problem here so that they can
push the public to accept mandatory insurance?
Secretary for Food and Health: No. I think the public system needs to have
sufficient resources for them to operate, but at the same time we cannot
drive the staff of the Hospital Authority so hard that they cannot take a
rest at the end of the day, so this is a very important balance we have to
strike. On the other hand, we would also like to encourage people to use the
private system if the private system has higher transparency of services and
also be able to guarantee the quality of service to the public. As you know,
this time we are not just looking at reforming the public system but also
the private system. The whole system reform is important and that is why we
have to have a lot of discussions and a lot of balancing required for the
market reform as well as for the professional unity in order to achieve the
result.
(Please also refer to the
Chinese session of the transcript.)
Ends/Monday, July 7, 2008
Issued at HKT 16:34
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