Press Releases
SFH on healthcare issues
Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and
Health, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session after a public function
today (January 17):
Reporter: (Healthcare financing consultation)
Secretary for Food and Health: We have no plan to postpone at this stage.
Our work is still going ahead. As I have mentioned earlier, we have done two
polls in the last month or so. Both have actually revealed that 70 per cent
of people prefer we have to go on with our work and also our consultation.
This is something encouraging. So, we will continue to do our work.
Regarding the exact date of the launching of the consultation, we have to
see which is the most appropriate date by that time.
Reporter: (postpone)
Secretary for Food and Health: We would not like to postpone it unless there
is some pressing situation. We will not make that decision right now.
Reporter: (inaudible)
Secretary for Food and Health: We are talking about in case the financial
situation is still volatile, in case the public is not ready to discuss
anything long term, we have to assess the situation. It also depends on what
type of recommendations we are putting forward.
Reporter: (missing of baby body)
Secretary for Food and Health: I have apologised to the baby's parents and I
would also like the Hospital Authority to help the Police investigate the
real fact of this case and also the people responsible. I think the Police
is still looking for clues and doing some of the statements of the affected
staff of the Hospital Authority.
Reporter: (inaudible)
Secretary for Food and Health: First of all, I think there is a definite
loss for the baby's parents. The Hospital Authority should directly talk to
the parents to decide what type of compensation to be considered. Regarding
the pay for the executives of the Hospital Authority, as I have said
earlier, it is made according to the adjustments of the cost of living that
is applied to all Hospital Authority staff. That was done in 2008, making
reference to the pay rise of the civil servants.
Reporter: (inaudible)
Secretary for Food and Health: At this particular stage of time, not many
people are supportive of the mandatory insurance scheme. But at the same
time, there is a contrasting view that they want to have a better protection
for our community, particularly the protection with risk pooling. So, we
have to be very careful of what to recommend in the next stage. We will be
suggesting something based on these principles.
Reporter: (live chicken imports)
Secretary for Food and Health: If you remember, during the past few years,
we always increase the number of imported chickens from the Mainland during
the festive seasons like Chinese New Year. The reasons why we did not
increase this year, are first of all, the risk of avian flu has been
relatively high in this region, including Hong Kong. Also, the last few
times when we discovered the H5 virus in the chicken droppings as well as in
the chicken farm in Hong Kong, are related to the time we increase the
import during the festive seasons. So, we feel this time we have to limit
the number of chickens to the existing level.
(Please also refer to the
Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, January 17, 2009
Issued at HKT 14:12
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