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Another important milestone in the development of the medical and health services in the past decade was the institution of a regional approach to medical and health provision in order to ensure that all seators of the community and all areas of the territory are adequately served. The territory is accordingly divided into five hospital regions each of which is to be provided with a regional hospital, offering medical services to the highest practical level of specialisation and sophistication, together with the necessary supporting facilities and infra-structure a the form of district hospitals to serve patients with less sophisticated needs, convalescent and infirmary hospitals, general and specialist outpatient clinica. This regional network is now firmly established and is constantly being refined and improved.
The future of the medical and health services and its system of delivery from this point onward, however, will present great challenges as we tread the path towards the complete goal of "Health for All by the Year 2000" as advocated by the World Health Organisation.
Our present health care delivery system in Hong Kong, through all its stages of development and evolution, has served us well for the past 11⁄21⁄2 centuries, dating back almost to the founding of Hong Kong itself. However, the winds of change which are now upon us are blowing ever stronger in the present transitional period leading to Hong Kong's metamorphosis from a British Colony to that of a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. Radical changes, political, social, economical and administrative, are taking place during this period and there is now a need for the health care delivery system to adjust itself to these changes if we were to maintain its efficiency and effectiveness and achieve further improvements in the future.
To this end, therefore, a firm of international consultants have been commissioned by the Government in 1985 to undertake a thorough review of the delivery of medical services in hospitals. This is an area which is most subject to changes and vulnerable to pressures as a result of the changes described above. The consultants have reported and the Government is now in the process of consulting the relevant professional and interested bodies and organisations in the community with a view to selecting those which are most effective and for the general good of the community, bearing in mind available resources.
Briefly, the recommendations of the consultants cater for :
(a) the need for flexibility in administration such that
the present restrictions and constraints imposed by civil service rules on staffing may be modified or changed;
(b) our present two systems of public hospitals to be
integrated in auch a way so that resources and services are more evenly and properly utilised;
(c) in view of the political changes in the direction
of a more representative government, for the future administration of hospital services to take into account representatives from the public so as to allow for a truly responsible and accountable public participation in the administration of the hospital services.
Thus, taking a glimpse into the future, bearing in mind the public's rising aspirations for better and more services as well as the political, administrative and social changes, it may well be that our present public assistance system could be retained but modified in such a way as to make it administratively more efficient and flexible and politically more accountable to the people it serves. The consultants' recommendations of an Independent Hospital Authority is therefore as good a way of achieving these objectives as any. If such a Hospital Authority is established, it follows that a separate Health Authority will also be crested. The latter, however, will have to remain within the Government because it is a government's basic responsibility to provide preventive services which are essential for the maintenance of a good public health in the community, All these factors are now being considered by the Government in consultation with the community and a decision will be made in due course.
The people of Hong Kong and its Government have in the past been called upon to make many decisions on a variety of difficult problems and subjects and have always arrived at sensible and balanced decisions to the benefit of the community as a whole. I am sure the present consideration and consultations between the Government and the community on what is best for Hong Kong in respect of a system for the delivery of hospital services will be no exception.
As I look back on the years, I am most grateful for the fact that the basic remit which I am charged with has generally been attained and that today the people of Hong Kong has a medical and health services which in spite of the various problems on the way have fulfilled the basic objectives of maintaining good public health and saving lives and limbs for all those who need the service and in addition incorporated sophisticated and advanced services and technology.
In conclusion, I take this opportunity of expressing my sincere gratitude and thanks to all those among my staff for the magnificent performances, dedication and support in the past years, without which we would not have achieved so much. I am sure all of us may draw courage and encouragement from our past efforts and achievements which will stand us in good stead to meet the new and crucial challenges still ahead.
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