Press Releases

SFH on medical services

< Back

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

NNNN

12 Apr 2019