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Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, at a media session at the Legislative Council Complex today (June 28):
Reporter: (On the Medical Council reform)
Secretary for Food and Health: I am indeed worried. I myself, together with colleagues of Food and Health Bureau, have been lobbying all stakeholders in particular our Legislative Councillors during this period. While we understand that there is majority support from the Legislative Councillors, I am rather concerned and unhappy to notice that there are misconceptions amongst some members of the medical profession regarding the objectives and the results of the reform of the Medical Council. Here, I have to clarify that there is no intention whatsoever for the Government to introduce substandard medical practitioners into Hong Kong, nor to bypass or affect the existing licensing examination requirement for non-Hong Kong graduates through these amendments. The only thing that we hope is to reform the Medical Council through amending the ordinance so that transparency could be improved. More importantly and more urgently, there are more than 900 complaint cases piling up, awaiting the Medical Council to handle. The only way that we can improve the efficiency of complaint handling of the Medical Council is through the amendment bill.
Reporter: Will your Bureau do anything to address the Ombudsman's report? How the Bureau can step forward?
Secretary for Food and Health: As I said, it is true that within these coming few years, there will be no more public columbarium niches supplied. The earliest will be around 2018 or 2019, when our new projects start to complete. Nevertheless, with our concerted efforts, in the past three years we have obtained support from seven or eight districts for the new public columbarium projects. The total number of columbarium niches that will be provided is close to 500 000. I think all of you probably also notice that the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council has just approved another project in Wo Hop Shek with a number of more than 40 000 niches.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Issued at HKT 20:55
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