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Following is a question by the Hon Li Kwok-ying and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (May 23):
Question:
Regarding the School Dental Care Service administered by the Department of Health, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number and percentage of primary school pupils who participated in the aforesaid service in each of the past three years;
(b) of the details of the publicity and promotional activities conducted to enhance the knowledge of school children on oral hygiene, and the amount of public expenditure incurred annually; and
(c) whether it will consider extending the coverage of the aforesaid service to secondary school students; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
According to the findings of a territory-wide Oral Health Survey conducted in 2001, the oral health status of Hong Kong residents had been improving steadily and the level of tooth decay among 12-year old students was on the low side in comparison with that of other places.
(a) In each of the past 3 years, the number and percentage of primary school students participating in the School Dental Care Service are shown in the Table.
(b) To enhance the knowledge of pre-school children about oral health, the Oral Health Education Unit (OHEU) of the Department of Health (DH) has been promoting the "Love Teeth with Your Kids" programme for seven consecutive years. The programme provides oral health education for over 100 000 children in kindergartens and pre-school centres, which amount to 80% of the total number of pre-school children in the territory. On top of this, the OHEU has also strengthened its outreach health education service by arranging an "Oral Health Promotion Bus" to visit primary schools across the territory to promote oral health.
Since 2004, an annual "Love Teeth" Campaign has been launched by the DH with the objective of facilitating the development of a correct tooth cleaning concept among the public and teaching them the proper tooth cleaning techniques. Apart from this, the DH updates the webpage of the OHEU from time to time, and has put in place a 24-hour interactive Oral Health Education Hotline, through which the public can have ready access to oral health information.
Since the expenditure of the above programmes are covered under the vote for oral health education of the DH, a detailed breakdown is not readily available. The overall actual expenditure of the DH's work on oral health education in 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07 are $29 million, $27 million and $23.6 million respectively, and the allocation for 2007-08 is $21 million.
(c) In order to ensure that school children will continue to take care of their oral health after they have moved on to secondary schools, the OHEU of the DH has developed a "Teens Teeth" oral health promotion programme for secondary school students. Participants are trained to organise various activities to promote oral health to their schoolmates and to teach Form One students the correct tooth cleaning techniques. As for the proposal of providing school dental care service to secondary school students, the Government will listen to the views of the dental profession. At present, there has yet to be any plan on the matter.
Ends/Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Issued at HKT 14:37
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