XN000022-1996-05-22 — Page 2

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Transcript of the Governor's media session

Following is the transcript of the media session by the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, after visiting the Lam Tin Polyclinic and the Wong Tai Sin Multi- service Centre for the Elderly this (Wednesday) afternoon:

Governor: I'm very pleased today to see the progress that we're making in implementing the pledges that I've made in the past to improve health care facilities for students, for women and for the elderly. I was interested to see the development of our student health care programme which I think will in due course make a major contribution to improvements in the health of people at every age in Hong Kong, and I'm especially pleased that parents have been involved in the programme.

Secondly, I was also delighted to see the woman's clinic. We'll have as you know three dedicated clinics for women by next year and I hope that we'll be able to encourage more women to refer themselves to these clinics so as to make a contribution to their own good health during middle years and beyond. It really is interesting to see the discussion groups that are taking place at the clinic on issues like diet and related matters. And I was very impressed by what I saw there.

Here, we've seen a very very good example of how we can reach out into the community and look after much better in particular the single elderly, people who are living on their own, and it was of course encouraging to see how many retired people themselves are volunteering to help with these programmes. So it has been a good look at the whole range of health care facilities and I'll be looking forward to seeing more of our implementation of pledges over the coming months.

Question: (on proposed increases in sewage charges)

Governor: I think that one of the surprising things, or perhaps one shouldn't be surprised about it, is that everybody is in favour of the principle of polluter pays until the bill comes in. The fact about the bill for sewage charges is that it is a pretty reasonable one. The increases we've proposed are about the same as those that we advised LegCo would be necessary in 1994 allowing for an inflation adjustment as well. About 16 per cent of households don't pay a charge at all; and about 60 per cent as a result of our proposals -- just over 60 per cent -- will only be paying between one dollar and two-and-a-half dollars more a month. So the charges, I don't think anybody is suggesting are hugely burdensome.