Press Releases
SFH on medical services
Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) made by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session
after attending a radio programme today (April 7):
Reporter: (Enough resources for medical hub)
Secretary for Food and Health: I don't want to use the word "medical hub"
but I would like to see Hong Kong as an area where we can actually
strengthen our medical services, so that we can attract not only just Hong
Kong patients, but also patients from nearby territories. The whole concept
is to build on the foundation of the existing strengths of our healthcare
system. We have a relatively high international standard in terms of our
professional standard, our health outcomes, and also our clinical results of
our specialists. We should build on those, also our professional ethics,
rather than try to compete with other countries in terms of cost and so on.
So, I think it is important that we should give the environment for the
profession to develop their strengths. We should be looking at both hardware
and software. Hardware wise, we have identified four pieces of land which
can be leased out for private hospital development. In terms of software, I
think we have, for example, the training of our specialists, the training of
our nursing staff and allied health staff which would be able to support
this type of development.
Reporter: (Collaboration between the public and private)
Secretary for Food and Health: I think, initially, we feel that we should
give priority to the private sector to develop. Of course, the Hospital
Authority has developed various intellectual properties and software in the
past years, so they can actually use that to strengthen the private market
and to collaborate with the private market. On the other side, I think there
are also other areas like Mainland, many cities are undergoing health care
reforms. So, they are also looking up to Hong Kong as a reference and as a
place for developing service partnership.
Reporter: Why don't you want to describe it as a "hub"? Are you afraid that
Hong Kong would not lead like Singapore in the Asia as a medical hub?
Secretary for Food and Health: I think when you say a hub, it means
everything comes together. I think at this moment, we should rather call it
a specialist centre.
Reporter: How much time and effort are you planning to put into this to make
it into a reality? And also with the recent drugs and all that, do you think
people from overseas will come to Hong Kong for treatment?
Secretary for Food and Health: I think irrespective of what happened in Hong
Kong, we are receiving quite a number of overseas patients right now, both
in the private sector as well as in the public sector. They come here for,
for example, operation on myopia like LASIK operation. They come here for
some of the elective surgeries and procedures, investigations and so on. As
I��ve said, it is happening, but of course it is not as dominant as you call
it an "enterprise" yet. So I think it is important to realise that we have
that potential and are able to develop further. Regarding your second
question, regarding the things happening, I think every time we have a
crisis, we always undertake review and also rebuild our system, so that we
grow stronger and more robust in terms of our professional standards and
also our regulations. So I think this would help Hong Kong strengthen our
position as a health care specialist centre for the future.
(Please also refer to the
Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Issued at HKT 16:35
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