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The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat:
The Legislative Council will hold a meeting on Wednesday (May 28) at 11am in the Chamber of the Legislative Council Building. During the meeting, Members will debate a motion on immediately improving the health care services in Hong Kong.
The motion, to be moved by Dr Hon Kwok Ka-ki, states: "That, the Consultation Document on Health Care Reform has given rise to extensive discussion in the community since its publication, and no consensus has so far been reached on supporting any 'supplementary financing' option requiring mandatory contribution or mandatory insurance, yet there are currently many problems in Hong Kong's health care services, thus this Council urges the Government to implement a series of measures to immediately improve Hong Kong's health care services; such measures must include:
(a) immediately using part of the $50 billion health care funding to improve Hong Kong's health care services, and using the remaining provision to set up a health care service fund, allocating part of the fiscal surplus to the fund in future, and making reference to the profit-sharing arrangement of the Exchange Fund, to provide stable funding for Hong Kong's public health care services;
(b) the Authorities substantially augmenting the provision of resources to improve existing services, increasing the use of new psychiatric drugs and thoroughly considering the views of stakeholders in formulating long-term psychiatric treatment and rehabilitation policy, in view of the persistent lack of resources and long-term service planning for psychiatric treatment, rehabilitation and support services;
(c) increasing the funding for the Hospital Authority (HA) to address the plight of persistent shortage of resources suffered by some hospital clusters or district hospitals, reducing the working hours of HA doctors, improving the promotion prospects of doctors and the situation of unequal pay for the same work, in order to retain experienced and middle-ranking doctors and health care workers as well as boost staff morale;
(d) proactively allocating land for the construction of new private hospitals and assisting existing private hospitals in their extension, so as to increase the provision of beds in private hospitals;
(e) increasing training resources and opportunities for specialists to enable various medical specialities to have sufficient room for development, thereby providing patients with the most suitable services;
(f) re-opening nursing schools and increasing the number of places for nursing degree programmes to boost nursing manpower;
(g) through promoting various public-private partnership (PPP) projects on health care services to improve the imbalance between public and private health care services which has existed for a long time, and supporting PPP in dental services;
(h) providing additional resources for HA or patients to purchase drugs, such as drugs for curing cancer, and immediately reviewing the Drug Formulary to avoid patients being denied effective drugs with little side effect due to financial difficulties and to reduce misunderstanding between doctors and patients;
(i) through purchasing services from community doctors or increasing the manpower of general outpatient clinics to reduce the number of cases in each consultation session attended by outpatient doctors and shorten patients' waiting time, thereby enhancing service quality;
(j) strengthening regulation of private medical insurance and encouraging the industry to provide medical insurance which is in line with public interest, such as insurance which does not discriminate against mental or chronic illness;
(k) increasing the value of elderly health care vouchers to at least $1,000 a year and providing low-income families with such vouchers;
(l) enhancing oral care education; and
(m) providing dental care vouchers for young children, secondary students, low-income families and the elderly, so as to protect the oral health of the public."
Hon Chan Yuen-han, Dr Hon Yeung Sum, Hon Vincent Fang Kang, Hon Li Kwok-ying and Dr Hon Joseph Lee Kok-long will move separate amendments to Dr Hon Kwok Ka-ki's motion.
Members will also debate a motion on the June 4 incident. The motion, to be proposed by Hon Cheung Man-kwong, says: "That this Council urges that: the June 4 incident be not forgotten and the 1989 pro-democracy movement be vindicated."
Meanwhile, Hon Vincent Fang Kang will move two resolutions under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance to amend the Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) (Amendment: Requirements for Nutrition Labelling and Nutrition Claim) Regulation 2008, which was laid on the table of the Legislative Council on April 9, 2008.
Hon Fred Li will also move a resolution under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance to amend the Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) (Amendment: Requirements for Nutrition Labelling and Nutrition Claim) Regulation 2008, which was laid on the table of the Legislative Council on April 9, 2008.
On government motion, the Secretary for Food and Health will move two resolutions under the Interpretation and General Clauses Ordinance to amend the Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) (Amendment: Requirements for Nutrition Labelling and Nutrition Claim) Regulation 2008, which was laid on the table of the Legislative Council on April 9, 2008.
On bill, Second Reading Debates on the Dutiable Commodities (Amendment) Bill 2008, the Dutiable Commodities (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2008 and the Prevention and Control of Disease Bill will resume. If the Bills are supported by Members and receive their Second Readings, they will then go through the Committee Stage and be read the third time.
During the meeting, Members will also ask the Administration 20 questions on various policy areas, six of which require oral replies.
The agenda of the above meeting can be obtained via the Legislative Council InfoFax Service (Tel: 2869 9568) or the Legislative Council web site (http://www.legco.gov.hk).
Members of the public are welcome to observe the proceedings of the meeting from the public galleries of the Legislative Council Chamber. They may reserve seats by calling 2869 9399 during office hours. Seats will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. Members of the public can also listen to the meeting via the audio webcast system on the Legislative Council homepage.
Ends/Monday, May 26, 2008
Issued at HKT 17:41
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