Press Releases
Membership of CHP Advisory Committee revealed
Prominent academics and medical professionals have been appointed to the Advisory Committee on Centre for Health Protection (CHP) to help form and shape Hong Kong's public health agency, a spokesman for the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau said today (November 10).
The advisory committee will be tasked with providing advice on the functional and organisational framework of the CHP, including the functions and roles, the scope, and the directions of training, research and development. It would also monitor the progress of the development of the centre.
The spokesman said members of the advisory committee were local health care professionals from the public and private sectors, experts in disciplines relevant to the work of the future CHP, a representative from the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), as well as relevant senior officials from the Government.
The Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Mrs Carrie Yau, is the chairman of the advisory committee.
The spokesman said the advisory committee would follow up on the recommendations made by the SARS Expert Committee in its report released on October 2, which suggested that the future CHP should not only have professional knowledge and expertise in combating communicable and non-communicable diseases, but also the administrative skills and statutory power to co-ordinate the work of various Government departments and the community when taking appropriate measures to tackle health threats and respond to outbreaks.
The report also suggested that the CHP should include the following key functions:
* Public health surveillance
* Investigative capacity in communicable diseases and environmental epidemiology
* Analytical capacity in information technology, data management, and system development
* Training
* Surge capacity
* Health education and evaluation
* Applied research
In addition, the scale of the new CHP should reflect the magnitude of risk faced by Hong Kong as an international city, the spokesman added.
In preparation for the setting up of the CHP, discussions have been held with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States and the Health Protection Agency of United Kingdom to learn from their experience.
The first meeting of the advisory committee will be held on Thursday (November 13) to review relevant overseas experience and discuss an initial framework of the future CHP.
The future CHP would be set up within the Government and mainly financed by Government resources, the spokesman said.
In addition, the HKJC has in principle pledged $500 million to support the establishment of the CHP.
Following is the membership list of the advisory committee:
*Chairman:
Mrs Carrie Yau
Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food
*Members:
Dr Chan Man-chung
Representative of Hong Kong Medical Association
Dr Joseph Kwan
Director of Safety and Environmental Protection, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
Dr Lam Ping-yan
Director of Health
Prof Edith Lau
President, Hong Kong College of Community Medicine
Dr Walton Li
Chairman, Hong Kong Private Hospitals Association
Prof Joseph Sung
Associate Dean (Clinical) and Director, Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Mr Paul Tang
Director of Social Welfare
Prof Thomas Wong
Head of School of Nursing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Dr Vivian Wong
Director (Professional Services and Medical Development), Hospital Authority
Dr Yeung Chiu-fat
President, Hong Kong Doctors Union
Mr Stanley Ying
Permanent Secretary for Security
Mr William Yiu
Executive Director of Charities and Corporate Secretariat, Hong Kong Jockey Club
Prof Yuen Kwok-yung
Head of Department of Microbiology, University of Hong Kong
Ends/Monday, November 10, 2003
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