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Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session after a public function today (January 17):
Reporter: (Healthcare financing consultation)
Secretary for Food and Health: We have no plan to postpone at this stage. Our work is still going ahead. As I have mentioned earlier, we have done two polls in the last month or so. Both have actually revealed that 70 per cent of people prefer we have to go on with our work and also our consultation. This is something encouraging. So, we will continue to do our work. Regarding the exact date of the launching of the consultation, we have to see which is the most appropriate date by that time.
Reporter: (postpone)
Secretary for Food and Health: We would not like to postpone it unless there is some pressing situation. We will not make that decision right now.
Reporter: (inaudible)
Secretary for Food and Health: We are talking about in case the financial situation is still volatile, in case the public is not ready to discuss anything long term, we have to assess the situation. It also depends on what type of recommendations we are putting forward.
Reporter: (missing of baby body)
Secretary for Food and Health: I have apologised to the baby's parents and I would also like the Hospital Authority to help the Police investigate the real fact of this case and also the people responsible. I think the Police is still looking for clues and doing some of the statements of the affected staff of the Hospital Authority.
Reporter: (inaudible)
Secretary for Food and Health: First of all, I think there is a definite loss for the baby's parents. The Hospital Authority should directly talk to the parents to decide what type of compensation to be considered. Regarding the pay for the executives of the Hospital Authority, as I have said earlier, it is made according to the adjustments of the cost of living that is applied to all Hospital Authority staff. That was done in 2008, making reference to the pay rise of the civil servants.
Reporter: (inaudible)
Secretary for Food and Health: At this particular stage of time, not many people are supportive of the mandatory insurance scheme. But at the same time, there is a contrasting view that they want to have a better protection for our community, particularly the protection with risk pooling. So, we have to be very careful of what to recommend in the next stage. We will be suggesting something based on these principles.
Reporter: (live chicken imports)
Secretary for Food and Health: If you remember, during the past few years, we always increase the number of imported chickens from the Mainland during the festive seasons like Chinese New Year. The reasons why we did not increase this year, are first of all, the risk of avian flu has been relatively high in this region, including Hong Kong. Also, the last few times when we discovered the H5 virus in the chicken droppings as well as in the chicken farm in Hong Kong, are related to the time we increase the import during the festive seasons. So, we feel this time we have to limit the number of chickens to the existing level.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, January 17, 2009
Issued at HKT 14:12
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