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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
Regarding the services of the Designated Clinics (DCs) and the Special Assessment Centres (SACs) for the incident of melamine tainted milk products, the Hospital Authority (HA) spokesperson issued the following announcement today (March 31):
In view of the decreasing demand, the free health screening service in the 18 DCs will stop operating from tomorrow (April 1). The free SAC service will remain in operation until April 9 or when all referrals from the DCs have been provided with further assessment service. Posters have been put up in HA hospitals and clinics to keep service users informed of the arrangement.
The DCs today (as at 5pm) provided initial assessment to 43 patients. Patients who require further assessment and treatment are referred to the SACs. There was no referral to an SAC for assessment today. Since the DCs and SACs began operations on September 23, 2008, a total of 56,847 attendances and 27,449 assessments have been reported at the DCs and SACs respectively over the past six months. In addition, the HA has reported 15 cases of renal problems suspected to be related to the consumption of melamine tainted milk products.
Children suspected to have renal symptoms related to melamine tainted milk products may consult private practitioners or attend any of the 74 general outpatient clinics for assessment by acquiring a medical consultation disc through the usual channel, and if clinically indicated, they will be referred to an appropriate specialist outpatient clinic for further investigation. These services will be subject to the standard fees and charges, i.e. $45 for each general outpatient consultation and $100 and $60 for the first and subsequent specialist outpatient consultation respectively.
Ends/Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Issued at HKT 19:27
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