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Following is the speech delivered by the Financial Secretary, Mr John C Tsang, at the Graduation and Prize Presentation Ceremony 2008 of the Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong today (November 26):
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Richard Wong, Dean Lakshman Samaranayake, Faculty Members, Graduates, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening.
It is, indeed, a great pleasure for me to join you all tonight for the graduation and awards ceremony of the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Hong Kong. I am deeply honoured to be able to share this very proud moment with you.
This ceremony marks the end of five years of hard work and the beginning of new and exciting careers.
My experience of the dentistry profession has been mainly on the receiving end, usually quite mortified, intimidated and speechless uttering nothing more than guttural sounds, so I am quite happy to speak to you today from the stage and far away from the dentistˇ¦s chair.
As our city's oldest institution of higher learning, the University of Hong Kong has a long history and profound intellectual heritage. It has nurtured generations of leaders in every sphere of our society, including business, government and medicine, and they are all dedicated to the pursuit of excellence.
The finest expertise, the state-of-the-art facilities and unrelenting efforts of its members over the past 26 years have helped to establish the Faculty of Dentistry as the premier centre for dental education and training in the whole of Southeast Asia.
With strong ties with the leading universities around the world, and particularly those in the Mainland of China, I am confident that there is huge potential for the Faculty to continue growing from strength to strength.
One exciting opportunity will be the planned development of a Hong Kong University satellite Campus in Shenzhen, and I understand that the dental faculty will play a key role in its development. This will also complement our aspiration of becoming the education hub of Asia.
The Faculty of Dentistry takes great pride in the success of its problem-based learning or the PBL model, which was adopted in 1998.With a decade of experience under its belt, the Faculty is now regarded as the world leader for PBL in dentistry.
As graduates, you have benefited from the carefully designed curriculum and classroom activities, and had ample opportunity to connect theories and textbook knowledge with practical training.You will be grateful for that experience, and so will your patients.
No doubt, you will have found the PBL model interesting, enjoyable, and above all, effective. This curriculum has earned a reputation for producing excellent practitioners, and I am confident that our graduates and prize-winners here tonight will continue with this tradition.
It has been a long-standing policy of our Government to improve oral health by promoting oral hygiene and oral health awareness in the community. Oral care services are now widely available across the city.
We also believe that good oral hygiene habits should be cultivated from a young age. The Department of Health started a School Dental Care Service back in 1980.Today, the Department runs eight School Dental Clinics to provide preventive dental services to primary school students. The Service has a highly impressive participation rate ˇV some 94 per cent of our primary school students have joined this scheme. More than 90 per cent of our primary school students graduate with good oral health.
The Government and the dental profession will continue to work closely to improve even further the oral health of our community. We now have more than 2 000 registered dentists in Hong Kong, more than half of whom have graduated from your school ˇV just like all of you today. To ensure that the highest standards are maintained, the Dental Council of Hong Kong has been playing the role of regulator for almost half a century.
The Council reached another milestone in 2006, when it established a statutory Specialist Register for dentists qualified in various specialist fields. The aim seeks simply to promote and to foster the development of the profession.
We also have the Hong Kong Dental Association. Back in the 1950s ˇV before many of you were born ˇV the Association made recommendations to the Government on fluoridation of the domestic water supply. That was a recommendation of great significance. The Association remains an important partner in promoting oral health and in serving the needs of our community.
These collaborative efforts have produced some pretty good results. In 2001, the mean DMFT value of our 12-year-old students was 0.8, which compared favourably with other developed economies. Our adultsˇ¦ tooth decay level also ranked the lowest among advanced economies, including Britain, the US, Japan and Singapore.
The Government places great emphasis on primary health care. In his Policy Address last month, the Chief Executive said more resources would be dedicated to enhancing primary health care services, including dental services.
Another challenge that we, along with many other economies, are facing is how to cope with an ageing population. Health care for the elderly is a particularly pressing issue. In January next year, we will launch the Elderly Health Care Voucher Pilot Scheme. This will give elderly people greater choice in considering primary care services. To start off with, people over 70 will receive five health care vouchers of $50 each annually to subsidise their use of private primary care services, including private dental services.
The Scheme is based on the "money follows patient" concept and will serve to promote the idea of shared responsibility for health care. It will also help to ensure appropriate use of healthcare services through co-payment. We began the enrolment process for the Scheme at the start of this month and more than 100 dentists had signed up within the first week.
We look forward to more participation from the dental profession in this area.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it now only remains for me to wish all you graduates every success as you embark on your careers. Iˇ¦m sure that you will have fond memories of your student days. I know I do. Although this graduation ceremony marks the end of your undergraduate or postgraduate course, it should not be regarded as the final stage of your education. Rapid developments in technology and medical advancements will require a commitment to life-long learning. I assure you that the Government will help to ensure that every learning opportunity is available for you to advance your careers in this demanding and indispensable profession. I wish you all the best on your new journey.
Last but not least, I must congratulate the parents, family members, friends and teachers of the graduates in the audience for being so patient and supportive for so long. You have done exceptionally well, a spectacular job I must say, and you deserve a generous portion of todayˇ¦s glory. I would like to ask all the graduates to stand up, face your parents, family members and your loved ones, take a bow and say thank you.
Thank you very much and my best wishes to you all.
Ends/Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Issued at HKT 20:01
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