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40th Anniversary Celebration
About HKCFP > President’s Message

January 2016

I attended the Policy Address Consultation Session on 3rd December 2015 chaired by Mrs. Carrie Lam, the Chief Secretary for Administration. Other than the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, we are the only academic College invited to the consultation.

Interestingly almost one-third of Mrs. Lam’s 35 years of public service was closely related to Hong Kong's medical services. She was posted to the Department of Health as its Assistant Director of Administration, tasked to implement recommendations in the Primary Health Care Report entitled Health For All by the Year 2000. It included new services like the Student Health Service and the Well Women Clinics and a new discipline in Family Medicine with the appointment of the first government consultant. No wonder she is really keen in primary healthcare.

Nowadays every country including China is orienting her healthcare policy, system and workforce towards primary healthcare services. The Government of Hong Kong SAR can make the best use of the existing structure: HKCFP as the Family Medicine Specialist College of the HKAM for training; and the Hong Kong Primary Care Directory as the Government quality assurance platform for the development of better primary healthcare in Hong Kong. Our Council has come up with the following principles and policy recommendations:-


Manpower: Hong Kong is severely lacking trained Family Physicians. The present primary care doctor population is ageing. Strategic manpower planning by earmarking the number of postgraduate training resident posts to Family Medicine, with dedicated resources, is essential to ensure a sustainable healthcare system. Earlier and positive exposure at undergraduate level would help to attract medical graduates to enter into this specialty addressing the need of the population. In longer term, the College supports all doctors to be vocationally trained and undertake CME to ensure quality and protect the interest of the general public.

Primary Care Directory: At the moment there is no prerequisite to join the Primary Care Directory (PCD). HKCFP strongly advises 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, a constituent College of HKAM or the two local Universities.

Quality Assurance of Primary Care Doctors: Quality assurance of primary care doctors is of prime importance. Poor quality primary care doctors can do more harm than good. An important quality assurance of Primary Care is Continuing Medical Education (CME) for all primary care doctors and HKCFP can help to assure CME programme is relevant to Primary Care.

Government Subsidy/ Collaboration with the Private Sector: The Primary Care Directory registration or Specialist registration should be a credential for participation in all Government Private Public Partnership schemes including the elderly health care vouchers, the subsidized vaccination and the colorectal cancer screening programme.

Community Development: HKCFP recommends the development of Community Health Centres/ Hubs that provide multi-disciplinary professional services to patients with chronic diseases including mental health problems and dementia in all 18 districts to serve both private and public patients.

Preventative Care for Chronic Diseases: There is a substantial number of undiagnosed diabetic and hypertensive patients especially among the elderly population in Hong Kong. A recent study indicates there are more than 350,000 people in Hong Kong with “undiagnosed diabetes”. HKCFP recommends to add HK$500 to the present Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme purely for preventive care involving blood tests and clinical screening. It is absolutely essential to place a genuine priority on prevention and early intervention activities.

We had a Council election in November 2015. Dr. Lau Ho Lim was elected ipso facto as the Vice President for General Affairs. There was a ballot for the Council members. The total number of valid ballot papers were 231 and the total number of votes were 795. Congratulations to Dr. Au Chi Lap, Dr. Chan Hung Chiu, Dr. King Chan, Dr. Mark Chan and Dr. Gene Tsoi. As expected, the popular Dr. Chan Hung Chiu received the highest number of vote. I will certainly miss Prof. William Wong this year and he will continue to serve the Boards and Committees to his best capability. The Council will have very tedious work this year and I am extremely pleased to have a very experienced and talented team. I must thank the members and fellows who had casted their vote to make us one of the most democratic Colleges in Hong Kong.

Last but not the least I must thank Dr. David Chao and our secretaries again in organizing our annual dinner at the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine on 6th December 2015.

This year we had changed it to Sunday instead of the usual Saturday evening and this is the second time we used this venue. Our masters of ceremonies were Dr. Kathy Tsim and Dr. Matthew Luk. Quite a few songs were nostalgic and the Fabulous Three: Dr. Chan Hung Chiu, Dr. Kenny Kung and Dr. Raymond Yeung were simply superb, supreme and superior! There were over 150 guests, members and fellows having a very enjoyable evening.

Year of the Monkey is just round the corner. I wish everyone more clever and smart in their career and wealth. Happy and Prosperous Year of the Monkey!





Dr. Angus M W CHAN
President

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