them.
5
Medical services provided to VMs
Medical services are provided to all Vietnamese migrants (VMs) if they need
There is no truth in allegations that any life-saving medical treatment had been denied to VMs unless they volunteered to return to Vietnam, the Principal Assistant Secretary for Security, Ms Sally Wong, said today (Friday).
Ms Wong said this in response to enquiries made at the Legco Home Affairs Panel and also recent reports in the media.
The Hong Kong Government's policy on the provision of medical services to VMs and Vietnamese refugees (VRS) is explained in the United Kingdom Government's response to the Concluding Observations of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, tabled at the Home Affairs Panel today.
Ms Wong said that having investigated into the three cases of alleged "refusal of medical or dental treatment", referred by Refugee Concern to the UN Committee, it was concluded that the allegations made were unfounded.
The three cases involved a VM child with leukaemia, a VM woman with breast cancer and another woman seeking dental treatment.
"The VM child with leukaemia was given appropriate chemotherapy treatment as soon as he was diagnosed as having the disease. Complete remission was achieved," Ms Wong said.
"The leukaemia recurred in January 1994. A second complete remission was again achieved with chemotherapy.
"As some abnormality was detected, an allergenic bone marrow transplantation was deemed necessary. None of the child's family members was found to be a suitable compatible donor and the boy was put on the waiting list for a matched unrelated donor transplant."
Ms Wong said that contrary to what had been said in some press reports, a bone marrow transplant was performed on the child on September 23, 1994 in Queen Mary Hospital.
"Unfortunately, after the transplant, the child developed symptoms and signs of acute graft-versus-host disease and various other diseases despite medical treatments given to him.