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40th Anniversary Celebration
About HKCFP > President’s Message

January 2017

2017 is the 40th Anniversary of our College and a series of events will kick off soon. HKCFP 40th Anniversary Conference with the theme "From Seedling to Forest - Ever Enriching Primary Care” will be in September. The Conferment Ceremony will shift to December 2017 instead of the usual May/ June timeslot to coincide with the Annual Dinner. Other major events of the year, just to name a few include eight public lectures organized by Board of Education and the radio programme 精靈一點 on Family Medicine by RTHK. For overseas events, we will actively participate in the Cross Strait Medical Exchange at Xiamen in March and Wonca Asia Pacific Region Conference at Pattaya, Thailand in November. The events will be jam-packed in the latter half of the year and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible especially at the Anniversary Conference and Annual Dinner. For the philatelists, please look out for the first day stamp cover issued by the Hong Kong Post.

There are a lot of misconception or even misinterpretation of the College which I must rectify. In November 2016, I attended the Government's policy address consultation session chaired by Mrs. Carrie Lam, Chief Secretary of the Hong Kong SAR. At the meeting I mentioned: "There is no prerequisite to join the Primary Care Directory. HKCFP opines that Diploma in Family Medicine is the minimum entry standard and strongly advocates the Government to provide adequate resource to sponsor postgraduate training for all eligible primary care doctors to upgrade their standard through Family Medicine training courses provided by HKCFP/ HKAM or the two local Universities." Interestingly, at this meeting one of the attendees was against the prerequisite of primary care doctors to have obtained this diploma and misquoted the course fee of HKD 50,000 to HKD 60,000 being too high to afford. I simply smiled when Mrs Lam turned her face to me knowing that I had the opportunity to make a full presentation to the senior officials of the Food and Health Bureau in December 2016. The main aim of the College is to enhance and maintain the standard of primary care doctors in Hong Kong. Since 2003, 327 doctors from both the private and public sectors have obtained the Diploma in Family Medicine taught by the College. All the diplomates find this course enhancing and relevant to their daily practice. DFM is not the monopoly of the College. Other institutions like the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Monash University of Australia also provide similar and quotable diplomas. HKCFP is a non-profit making College! DFM course fee for 2016 was HKD 30,000 for members with early bird discount of HKD 3,000 which represents good value for money. All diplomates are College members. If more doctors enrol in this diploma, the course fee can certainly come down further. For those who suffer from diplomatosis, DFM is a must collective item and the most practical of all.

Another annoyance is the misquotation that College examination had 10% pass rate. I have searched through the relevant documents and can never find such a low figure. Back in the 90’s, the Conjoint Examination was conducted in the “old” format, in that there were three written papers and five clinical segments. This complicated examination system might be one of the reasons that the Conjoint Examination and was rumoured to have low pass rate. This unwelcome impression has since been around the medical community although it has become an unfortunate misconception in the past ten years when the pass rate has been very reasonable and healthy since the introduction of new format in 2003. The official pass rate of 2016 Conjoint Examination was 76.3%. I have mentioned before, our examinations are robust and meticulous and are well monitored by RACCP and external examiners. Nowadays we have better trained trainees and no wonder they pass the examination with flying colours.

Year of the Rooster is fast approaching. Rooster is synonymous with the character of family doctor: very observant, hardworking, resourceful, courageous, and talented. I wish you all a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year!

Dr. Angus M W CHAN
President

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