The Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, visited the Lam Tin Maternal and Child Health Centre (MCHC) and the Lam Tin Student Health Service Centre (SHSC) under the Department of Health (DH) this afternoon (August 15) to inspect their operations, including that of the health services for infants, school children and women.

     Accompanied by the Director of Health, Dr Ronald Lam, Professor Lo and the Under Secretary for Health, Dr Libby Lee, first visited the MCHC to learn more about the services provided by the DH's Family Health Service (including child health, maternal health, family planning, cervical screening and women health services). They then visited the SHSC and received a briefing by staff members on the annual health assessment services offered to students. While certain student health services were suspended earlier due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the DH announced yesterday (August 14) that the annual health assessment services for all grades of primary and secondary school students will be resumed during the school year 2023/24.

     Professor Lo said, "Health is of the utmost importance to children's growth and development. The MCHCs and the SHSCs run comprehensive health surveillance and disease prevention services for infants and school children according to their needs at different stages, thereby safeguarding our next generation and enabling them to grow up healthily and happily.

     "Meanwhile, the DH provides a wide range of health services to support the needs of women at different stages of lives and in various roles, especially those women in their antenatal and postnatal periods. I note in particular that multiple breastfeeding-friendly measures were launched in the MCHC to ensure that lactating mothers can receive all the necessary support."

     The DH's Family Health Service offers health promotion and disease prevention services for infants and children from birth to 5 years old as well as women aged 64 or below at its MCHCs and Woman Health Centres. Services for children include immunisation, health and developmental surveillance and parenting programmes, whereas those for women range from prenatal and postnatal as well as cervical screening to family planning and women health. Meanwhile, the DH's Student Health Service aims to safeguard both the physical and the psychological well-being of students through health promotion and disease prevention services. Meeting the health needs of students at various stages of development, the SHSCs' free annual health assessment services for the eligible enrolled primary and secondary school students cover physical examination, screening for vision, hearing, psychological health and behaviours, etc, as well as individual health counselling and health education.

Ends/Tuesday, August 15, 2023
Issued at HKT 19:05

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