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Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, at a media stand-up session in the Legislative Council Complex today (November 9):
Reporter: (about whether there will be any delay in the construction of North Lantau Hospital)
Secretary for Food and Health: No, the construction is going on. We expect the commissioning will start in 2013, and at the same time, the service will start as early as 2014. According to most of the commissioning of hospitals, we always start with certain departments first. We cannot really open a hospital in full swing at the first stage. Like all hospitals, the most important part is to ensure that the services that are vital to the district would be introduced first, like the emergency services, so that people would not need to worry in the middle of the night to travel a long distance to get the service. Other services would come on stream. Of course, we think that it should not take too long, because after all the hospital is actually not a big hospital. It has only got 150 beds to start with. So I think it is not too difficult to find the right number of staff.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Issued at HKT 16:20
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