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Following is a speech by the Secretary for Health and Welfare, Dr E K Yeoh, at the 9th Hong Kong Doctors Union Sunday Afternoon Symposium cum Presentation Ceremony of Appointment Certificates to CME Academic Advisors today (April 22):
Dr Yeung, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
I am really glad to see so many of you gather here, on a Sunday afternoon, in pursuit of the common goal of improving your professional standards. The Hong Kong Doctors Union has been organizing these monthly medical programmes for general practitioners since July 2000. I must congratulate the Union and its Academic Advisors for their success in providing continuing medical education to the medical profession.
Hong Kong has been enjoying high standards of medical care. Our medical practitioners and health care professionals are among the best in the world. This is due, in no small part, to the efforts of members of the professions to continuously keep themselves abreast of latest developments. Indeed, given the rapid changes in medical knowledge and technology, efforts to maintain high standards have to be continuous and lifelong. At the same time, the community's expectation of the professions' services is ever rising.
Against this background, in the Consultation Document on Health Care Reform, we have proposed that health care professionals, including doctors, dentists, nurses and allied health providers, should be required to undertake continuing professional education and development to ensure that their knowledge, practice and skills are updated. Nevertheless, I understand that this may require a period of time to enable sufficient preparation and organization and should proceed in an evolutionary manner. The approach proposed by the Medical Council for medical practitioners to undertake continuing medical education on a voluntary basis initially and to review the arrangement in three years is an encouraging development in the right direction.
The good turn-out rate at this Sunday Symposium indicates that doctors appreciate the importance of continuing medical education. This also proves that when you have the will, you have the time.
I would like to thank the Hong Kong Doctors Union again for organizing a wide variety of medical education programmes in the past 30 years, including this series of Sunday afternoon symposiums. Special thanks go to the Union's Academic Advisors, who are experts in respective specialties, for their hard work in enhancing the standard of medical practice in Hong Kong. Their efforts have also brought about a positive attitude among general practitioners towards lifelong learning. I look forward to your continued support in further promoting continuing professional education among the medical profession.
Thank you.
End/Sunday, April 22, 2001
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