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Representatives from various local medical groups and government medical officials today (September 18) unanimously agreed to further tighten their collaboration in the prevention and early detection of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) with a view to safeguarding public health.

During a meeting with representatives from 12 local private hospitals, the Hong Kong Doctors Union, the Hong Kong Medical Association and the Hospital Authority, the Director of Health, Dr Lam Ping-yan, said the incident involving the transfer of a 34-year-old woman from Adventist Hospital to Princess Margaret Hospital earlier this week had clearly indicated that the government and the private medical sector were working in close liaison in the prevention of SARS and demonstrated the effectiveness of Hong Kong's disease surveillance.

"However, the incident also shows that greater support to the private medical sector in laboratory tests for SARS would be beneficial," Dr Lam said.

Dr Lam pointed out that the Public Health Laboratory Centre (PHLC) of the Department of Health (DH) has been providing laboratory support for SARS-corona virus testing to private laboratories since the SARS outbreak in March.

"The PHLC has carried out PCR, culture and serology tests for SARS from private laboratories and private hospitals this year," he added.

After hearing the views of the private medical sector on and their experience with diagnostics in private laboratories, Dr Lam agreed that to facilitate early detection and reliable testing of SARS, the PHLC will provide public health laboratory consultation service for private hospitals and SARS tests for hospital patients with clinical indication for testing.

Feedback from the representatives of the private sector was encouraging. Members agreed to start the ball rolling as soon as possible should the proposal be accepted by the private medical sector.

The meeting also reviewed the existing communication channels between the government and the private medical sector in case of SARS with a view to further improving the effectiveness of the notification mechanism.

Dr Lam said that DH is planning to create a SARS webpage under DH's Homepage tailor-made for local private hospitals to keep them abreast of the situation.

End/Thursday, September 18, 2003

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