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Following is a 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 (December 7):
Reporter: (About the surging number of non-local expectant mothers going to Accident & Emergency Departments at the last minute for deliveries.)
Secretary for Food and Health: Since we announced the quota system for both the public and private hospitals in April this year, we have been seeing less numbers of Mainland pregnant women being registered in our hospitals. We expect that in 2012, we should have less numbers of Mainland mothers giving birth in Hong Kong. Of course, the concern is also for Mainland women who did not register but yet are able to reach our hospitals through the Accident & Emergency Departments and try to give birth in our public hospitals. I have time and again advised them against doing this because this will pose extra danger to themselves and their babies. It is important to note that maternity service should be done with planning and pre-arrangement.
Reporter: Will the Government do anything to stop this phenomenon?
Secretary for Food and Health: We are doing several things to reduce this type of incident although it is of course not totally foolproof. We have stopped pregnant women from the Mainland (without the certificate on confirmed antenatal and delivery booking) from entering Hong Kong at the border. We have been doing that on a regular basis. We have also ensured that the hospitals are equipped to deal with any emergency. I have time and again said that this type of pregnant women from the Mainland may not be able to receive the same standard of service as those women who have prenatal check-ups as well as pre-arrangement.
Reporter: (About measures to totally ban this type of pregnant women from Mainland.)
Secretary for Food and Health: I do not think we will be able to achieve that because there are many people crossing the border every day, with different means.
Reporter: (About inspection of milk powder.)
Secretary for Food and Health: The Centre for Food Safety has already enquired about the import of Meiji STEP milk powder that is for nine months and over babies. At the moment, we have done a lot of tests. Since the Fukushima incident, we have checked 140 milk powder samples from Japan and 49 of them come from the Meiji brand. So far, we have not detected any radiation from those samples but we are continuing to collect and check samples from the market. We are also liaising with the Japanese Government to counter-check the batch numbers (of the milk powder containing radioactive substances) to ascertain that the affected products have not been imported to Hong Kong.
Reporter: (About stepping up surveillance.)
Secretary for Food and Health: We are still checking every batch of milk powder, or food products from Japan. Our surveillance is quite vigilant and we have to consider follow-up for any report from elsewhere. Even though it does not affect Hong Kong products, we have to monitor whether there will be similar products coming to Hong Kong. This way of surveillance will continue until we feel that it is suitable to relax. But we will not relax right now.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Issued at HKT 18:56
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