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Speech by the Chief Executive ,Mr Tung Chee Hwa , at the Sixth Hospital Authority Convention today (Monday):
Peter, Dr Yeoh, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my great honour and pleasure to be here today to officiate at the Opening Ceremony of the Hospital Authority's sixth Annual Convention. I would like to take this opportunity to extend a very warm welcome to all of you. In particular, I would like to welcome our distinguished guests and delegates from overseas. Your presence here is particularly well-timed. The first Legislative Council election of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was held yesterday. More than 1.49 million registered voters have cast their votes in this election for the first legislature. The turnout was well above expectation and well above the turnout of the 1995 election. The enthusiastic turnout not only is a result of the work of all the candidates, the efforts of the government to promote this election, but I think most importantly, this heavy turnout demonstrates our belief in the "one country, two systems" and "Hong Kong people running Hong Kong" and that we are now at last the master of our own house. The work of the legislature will be very challenging and we, as a government, look forward to a constructive working relationship with this new legislature.
In fact, the work of the Legislative Council is closely related to the daily life of Hong Kong people. The development of health care services will certainly be one of the areas in which the new Legislative Council will have an interest.
As a community, we are fully aware that investment in health care services is an investment in our future. A healthy population is the pre-requisite for the increased productivity and continuous growth. In Hong Kong, public health care services have always been able to secure a good slice of the financial pie each year. In the current financial year, Government's recurrent budget on public health care services amounts to HK$29 billion. This spending takes up 14.6% of the Government's total recurrent public expenditure. In terms of patient days, about 92% of Hong Kong's hospital patients receive their treatment from the public sector.
With such heavy investment in the public sector, we have successfully made quality health care services accessible and affordable to each and every resident of Hong Kong. An important pillar in the provision of public health care and hospital service is, of course, the Hospital Authority. Through the selfless and dedicated efforts of health care professionals, the Hospital Authority has indeed provided quality patient care to meet the needs of the community as a whole. Furthermore, the Authority has made great strides in recent years towards achieving seamless health care system through continuous improvements in all aspects of their services as well as a better interface with other health care providers. As a result of these efforts, we have, over the years, been able to achieve enviable health indices - our infant mortality rate is 4 per one thousand live births and our average life expectancy stands at 76 years for males and 82 for females.
We know, however, that we must not be complacent because the challenges ahead are indeed very daunting. With an ageing and growing population, advance in medical technology and ever-rising aspirations for quality care, the demands for public health care services is likely to escalate exponentially in the face of financing constraints and competing claims. Time has come for us to ask ourselves the following questions:-
* How should we finance our health care system in the
future?
* How can we allocate resources wisely among different
health care services in order to keep people healthy
and contain expenditure on curative treatment?
* What can we do to improve the interface between the
public and private sectors and enhance the latter's
role in the provision of health care?
With a view to devising a long term strategy to meet the challenges ahead, we are now conducting a comprehensive review of our existing health care system. We know that these challenges are not unique to Hong Kong. This Convention provides a good opportunity for us to share our visions, philosophies, values and approaches on how we can tackle these health care issues of common concern. I am sure that over the course of the next few days, all participants will have much to learn and benefit from each other at this Convention.
I wish you all a rewarding and fulfilling experience at this Convention, and for those joining us from overseas, a pleasant and exciting stay in this dynamic city of ours. Thank you very much.
End/Monday, May 25, 1998
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