Press Releases
SFH on Review of Regulation of Private Healthcare Facilities
Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and
Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, when meeting the media at the lobby of West Wing,
Central Government Offices, today (June 27):
Secretary for Food and Health: I am deeply concerned about the tragic
incident which occurred yesterday, whereby a female patient undergoing a
surgical procedure called liposuction died shortly after the operation. I
would also like to express my deepest sympathy to the relatives of this
patient and to assure them that the government departments and hospital
concerned will try to provide support to the (deceased's) family as far as
possible in the subsequent procedures.
Regarding this particular incident, I would also like to mention about the
outcome of the review of the regulation of private healthcare facilities in
the community. We set up the Steering Committee (on Review of Regulation of
Private Healthcare Facilities) in late 2012. Out of the four working groups
under this steering committee, the second working group looks at high-risk
medical procedures performed in community-based private healthcare
facilities. The working group recommended that in future, any places or
premises where high-risk surgical or medical procedures will be performed
should be subject to a licensing arrangement for regulation. Recommendations
of these working groups will soon be reported to the Panel on Health
Services of the Legislative Council. We will undertake a public consultation
exercise on the proposed legislation on regulation of private healthcare
facilities within the second half of this year and thereafter proceed to the
legislative work as soon as possible.
Reporter: (On whether it is too late at this stage to say that beauty salons
involved in high-risk procedures need a licence.)
Secretary for Food and Health: I can accept the criticisms but I would also
like to say that the steering committee as well as the four working groups
have indeed undertaken a huge task in the past one and a half years and come
up with this very comprehensive set of recommendations which we hope we can
take forward as soon as possible.
Reporter: (On differentiation between medical procedures and beauty
services.)
Secretary for Food and Health: In brief, the first working group of the
steering committee has completed its review and (made) recommendations. The
Department of Health has subsequently issued a set of guidelines to separate
the so-called beauty procedures from the high-risk medical procedures. The
only area which remains to have work to do is those procedures which involve
the utilisation of advanced medical equipment. We have also expressed our
intention to carry forward a legislative framework to regulate the use of
these medical equipment.
Reporter: (On criticisms about the Government dragging its feet in
legislation and if there is any way to speed up the process.)
Secretary for Food and Health: I have already said that in order to listen
to more views from both the professionals as well as the public, we would
still need to undertake a round of consultation, but we will in parallel
commence or seek to commence the law drafting procedure so that we can
shorten as much as possible the overall duration required for the
establishment of this legal regulatory framework.
(Please also refer to the
Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Friday, June 27, 2014
Issued at HKT 20:12
NNNN