Press Releases

SFH on North Lantau Hospital incident, bomb explosion in Bangkok and Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme

Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, after attending a public function today (August 20):

Reporter: (About the report on the North Lantau Hospital incident.)

Secretary for Food and Health: I understand from the Hospital Authority (HA) that the report would be available in one or two days. Once the report is available, we will study it carefully to see whether the report can point to any areas, including existing guidelines and procedures as well as operational aspects, where we can institute improvement to avoid similar incidents in the future.

Reporter: (About the girl who sustained injuries in an explosion and needs to undergo another operation in Thailand.)

Secretary for Food and Health: I understand from our colleagues of HA in Bangkok that the girl is required to undergo another operation today. I hope she would have a smooth operation and a speedy recovery. Our medical team would still be there for the next one or two days to provide support to the victims and their families.

Reporter: (About assistance to victims who wish to return to Hong Kong.)

Secretary for Food and Health: I think our officers from the Immigration Department and the healthcare workers from HA would provide appropriate advice and assistance to those who wish to return to Hong Kong shortly, provided that local doctors-in-charge consider discharge is appropriate.

Reporter: (About the Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme.)

Secretary for Food and Health: After the completion of the consultation exercise, we are now in the process of discussion with the insurance industry regarding certain aspects of the minimum requirement of the scheme. We hope that an agreement and consensus could be reached and the scheme could be moved forward as soon as possible, even before the law could be enacted.

Reporter: (About the aspects of discussion.)

Secretary for Food and Health: There are different aspects for discussion, for example, the level of coverage. I think there is room for further discussion so that an appropriate balance could be reached.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Thursday, August 20, 2015
Issued at HKT 16:16

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