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Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, after attending a radio programme this morning (June 14):
Reporter: Can you comment on the plan to bring in more lay assessors to the Medical Council? Is that good enough to speed up the process (of handling complaints)?
Secretary for Food and Health: There has been widespread concern about the operational efficiency of the Medical Council recently, particularly in respect of its procedures in handling disciplinary inquiries. The Medical Council has formally submitted a proposal to the Government on introducing two major changes in the current Medical Registration Ordinance. Firstly, it proposed to increase the number of non-professional assessors that we can appoint to the Medical Council. The second proposal is to allow non-professional assessors taking part in the Preliminary Investigation Committee of the Medical Council. With these two changes, it would enhance the operational efficiency of the Medical Council in handling disciplinary proceedings and shorten the timeframe of conducting disciplinary inquiries. Meanwhile, it would also enhance the participation of laymen in its disciplinary procedures, i.e. enhance the participation by those members who are not medical professionals in disciplinary inquiries. I think these two particular aspects would be something that we would all like to see. The response of the Government to these proposals is positive and we would look at the possibility of introducing such a legislative change as soon as possible.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, June 14, 2014
Issued at HKT 17:43
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