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The Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee Hwa, pledges that the administration will do all it can to minimise the risk of clinical mis-haps recurring.

While sharing the public concern at the number of unfortunate incidents which had occurred in hospitals and clinics over the past years, Mr Tung said that Hong Kong people enjoyed a health status that was among the best in the world.

He cited that the infant mortality rate was a low four per 1,000 live births and life expectancy was long at 76 years for men and 82 years for women.

Despite the enormous pressure on public health care system which saw two million admittances to emergency rooms and seven million attendances at specialist clinics last year, the system had served us well, Mr Tung said.

"Of course, this is of no comfort when things go wrong, and we must ensure that our health care workers are trained to the highest levels of competence."

To this end, the Hospital Authority was improving its clinical audit and risk management system and would keep these under strict review with the aim of further reducing the risk of clinical mis-haps.

Mr Tung said the Government would continue to invest in the public medical sector and improve the existing services for the benefit of community.

For example, the pharmaceutical services provided in the clinics of the Department of Health would be upgraded to ensure a high quality of service and to help avoid a recurrence of dispensing errors, and in-patient services would be extended in 1999-2000 by bringing into use 853 additional beds in public hospitals.

Also, a proposal would be put forward to redevelop Pok Oi Hospital to meet the rising demand for medical services in the northwest New Territories and funds had been reserved to set up a new Radiotherapy Centre in Princess Margaret Hospital to improve services to cancer patients.

Although the review of financing and delivery of health care was still in progress, its preliminary findings showed that public expenditure on health care had taken up an increasing share of Government's resources over the last decade.

This share was projected to increase by a further 50 per cent between now and 2010, putting great pressure on public finances.

"If we are to continue, in the long term, to be able to provide quality services we will need to implement reforms.

"We are now developing reform options and shall begin public consultation on this important issue in 1999," he said.

On new public health initiatives, Mr Tung said that the administration had studied the optimum framework for the delivery of food safety and environmental hygiene services as part of the review of the District Organisations.

This was in view of the spate of public health and hygiene incidents, such as the outbreak of avian influenza, which had raised public concern about the deterioration of food safety and environmental hygiene standards.

"Changes to our current management framework will not affect initiatives already in the pipeline, and these will strengthen our monitoring, prevention and control of the spread of communicable diseases.

"In the coming year, we will step up our health surveillance programmes, increase our analysis of disease data, liaise more frequently with overseas health authorities and intensify staff training.

"To support these initiatives, we will build a new Public Health Laboratory Centre in Shek Kip Mei, which is scheduled for completion in 2002," Mr Tung said.

Noting that poor hygiene and careless habits were the direct cause of many illnesses, particularly food-related infectious diseases, Mr Tung said that the "Healthy Living into the 21st Century" campaign was launched in May this year to promote public awareness of the importance of personal and environmental hygiene.

A special team in the Health and Welfare Bureau would be set up to organise a campaign of educational, publicity and community activities to emphasise the message that good hygiene contributed to good health.

"We will also step up government action to monitor food safety with the aim of ensuring that there is a consistent, unbroken monitoring process which tracks our food from the field to the meal table," he added.

End/Wednesday, October 7, 1998

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