Following are the remarks made by the Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, at a media session after attending a radio programme this morning (August 22):

Reporter: How does the number of full medical fee waiver change so far since the public health care reform was implemented at the beginning of this year? And also, what you mentioned earlier about the reform on the Medical Council, how would that four-tier penalty mechanism help to safeguard both doctors and patients better?

Secretary for Health: The fee waiver before the fees and charges reform implemented since January 1 this year, there were about 14 000 people who actually got the fee waivers; but up to today, for this year, we have already had over 280 000 fee waivers approved. This is a dramatic increase. More than 20 times now in the number of people who actually got the fee waivers, and the majority of these who got the fee waiver approvals were complete waiving of the fees and charges, meaning that the patient would not be required to pay any fees at all. This is a very dramatic improvement in safeguarding those who have financial difficulty through an assessment of their income and assets, so we will continue to ensure that low income families would benefit from this and that no one will be deprived of healthcare services because of a lack of financial means.

     Regarding the reform of the Medical Council (Medical Council of Hong Kong), the new penalty options will ensure that both the public and the professionals, that the doctors to be given a more fair and visible judgment and penalty according to a four-tier mechanism, and this will also help us to make the best use of the options, because in the past, there is either a suspension of the removal from the register or there is no way that for a particular doctor who's deficient in certain skills to be given a more precise penalty. For example, if a doctor is deficient in certain skill, the new penalty mechanism will be able to impose restrictions on his practice without completely suspending his practicing license. This is very important and we want to ensure that the penalty mechanism is fair both for the public and for the professionals at the same time, making the best use of our regime.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the remarks.)

Ends/Saturday, August 22, 2026
Issued at HKT 14:05

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