Transcript of remarks by SFH at media session
*********************************************
Reporter: (about the passing of the Medical Registration (Amendment) Bill 2017)
Secretary for Food and Health: First of all, I would like to thank everybody who have participated in getting the law passed - the legislators, patients, families and doctors' associations - in working together to reach this consensus. Now that the legislation was passed, we have a number of follow-up work. First of all, with the increased number of lay members (of the Medical Council of Hong Kong), we are going to have negative vetting legislation tabled to the Legislative Council, so that we can lay out all the guidelines and the legislation related to the election of representatives from patients rights organisations. Secondly, on doctors with limited registration, we have increased the number of years of registration from not more than one year to not more than three years. With this increase, we hope to increase the flexibility of our public health system. The Hospital Authority, the Department of Health, and the two medical schools in Hong Kong can provide further incentives to hire overseas trained doctors to come back to Hong Kong to work, so that the situation of doctor shortage can be relieved. Finally, we also have to improve the patient's complaint system to increase its efficiency and effectiveness. The Medical Council of Hong Kong would have to forge ahead with the work in terms of improving the existing mechanism. The Government would also provide additional resources to assist with the administration to forge ahead with this kind of work. Finally, I would like to thank everybody who have participated in getting this legislation passed. I think it is really a very important step forward to improve the relationship between doctors and patients so that we - the Government, doctors, patients and patients right associations - can work together to improve the health of the people in Hong Kong.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Issued at HKT 22:58
Issued at HKT 22:58
NNNN