XN000022-1995-01-25 — Page 19

9.

Caring for our elderly has always been a Government priority. This has been abundantly proven in various policy areas such as housing, welfare, and healthcare. We have in place extensive programmes to promote the health and welfare of our elderly men and women. The Working Group on Care for the Elderly which reported in August last year, made 71 recommendations that carry significant and far-reaching implications on the provision of services for our elderly citizens in the years to come. We will implement the recommendations contained in this Report at an additional annual recurrent cost of $37 million in 1995-96 rising to $108 million in 1999-2000. Another $327 million in capital costs will also be spent between 1995 and the year 2000 in improving services for our elderly people. This is a clear commitment by the Government.

Primary Health Care

The Report of the Working Party on Primary Health Care (PHC) published in 1990 reaffirmed Government's commitment towards primary healthcare and its important role in the overall health care programme for our citizens. It also set the scene for re-orientation of emphasis towards primary health care in our overall healthcare policy.

In this process, we have followed several guiding principles:

(a)

(b)

Firstly, although the application of primary healthcare varies between population groups, there should not be an arbitrary segregation of different age groups in health promotion; we agree with the Hon C H Leong who rightly points out that health promotion should start at an early age;

Secondly, a multi-disciplinary and multi-faceted approach should be adopted in the provision of services. This means that primary healthcare should be provided not just through the Government or through the medical profession alone, but also through the non-medical disciplines, such as welfare workers. Many members have also spoken on this topic. The modes of provision of primary healthcare should include not just health screening but also disease prevention, counselling, health education, curative treatment and rehabilitative care. We need to maximise the use of all existing resources, not just in the Health Department but in all Government funded healthcare institutions such as the Hospital Authority and other subvented non-governmental organisations;

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