HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL -8 March 1989
香港立法局
—————————一九八九年三月八日
53
Furthermore, it seems that the inability to identify problems within a professional department will continue, if the advice on the appointment of senior officials and members of the overseeing advisory committee continues to come from the same professional department.
Alas for once, I do believe that Government has taken the problems squarely and is sincere in tackling them. Whether they would really succeed depends very much on the allocation of the budget which is now under study. I will and urge the medical and paramedical staff also to, be patient as these efforts will take time. More importantly, I urge for their valuable co-operation. And a personal tip to them is that they ought to have no fear that their plight will be forgotten if their industrial action is called off. They have already won the overwhelming support of Members of this Council, as demonstrated by the number of colleagues speaking today.
I will finish off by warning Government, yet, again against:
(a) splitting the medical and health services, as they are inseparable.
(b) downgrading the posts of the Director of Hospital Services and the Director
of Health if such a split is inevitable; and lastly,
(c) the very possibility that improving the medical and health services in accordance with the wishes of the people and modern standards under the existing framework of low fee charges, without the concurrent development of medical insurance, will in 10 years put a strain on the economy of Hong Kong.
If such advice is again ignored, the problem in medical and health services in 10 years' time will be far greater than it is today! And I can assure you that! The future shall again speak for itself.
MR. MARTIN LEE: Sir, I propose to contribute to this debate from the consumer's point of view. But before I begin, I wish to disclose to this Council that I am one of the honorary legal advisers of the Hong Kong Medical Association and a member of the Board of Governors of Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital, a subvented hospital.
Sir, the first thing I wish to say is that the doctors and nurses are not irresponsible in taking industrial action in the way they do, particularly bearing in mind the very limited scope of their action and the very reasonable demands they are making. And I do not subscribe to the view that since the grievances
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