HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 28 June 1989 香港立法局 一九八九年六月二十八日
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Government will shortly be seeking approval from the Finance Committee of this Council for the necessary funds to increase substantially its financial commitment to the scheme, thus enabling a higher rate of capitation grant to be paid to each participating doctor. At the same time, it is also considered to be reasonable that parents should bear a slightly greater share of the costs, and so, in addition to the present enrolment fee which will remain at $10, they will be asked to pay a further $10 upon each visit. In addition to medical treatment, the fee will include two days' supply of medicine.
As for the longer term, the school medical service will be included within a comprehensive review of primary health care which I hope will get under way next month. One of the aims of this review will be to raise further the standard of health care provided to children by improving and extending screening and detection procedures.
Unfortunately, children at certain times in their lives can develop health problems which require hospitalization. The Government's approach has been to develop paediatric units within general hospitals rather than to establish separate paediatric hospitals. Accordingly paediatric units are provided in most of the major hospitals, and the 1 420 paediatric beds in the public sector are assessed to be adequate at present, bearing in mind that the average utilization rate was only 67% last year. None the less, there are plans to provide a further 647 beds by 1993, so that new population areas can be served.
There will be corresponding improvements in the quality of care. New paediatric wards will include mother and child rooms or overnight accommodation for parents, play areas, isolation rooms, intensive care units and short-stay wards.
Regarding dental services for school children, our water fluoridation programme is one of the most successful internationally and this, together with the school dental service which is available to all primary school children, has led to a significant improvement in dental health. A review of dental policy is presently being undertaken by a sub-committee of the Medical Development Advisory Committee and proposals relating to the further development of dental services for school children may emanate from this wider review.
I hope I have been able to illustrate, if only in a very limited way, that Government places a very high priority on promoting the health of our children.