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anticipate the Board's decision.
However, in response to Mr. Cheong-Leen's real concern and his proposal to turn the Scheme into a free and compulsory one, I should like to make three points, hopefully, without prejudice to the Board's independent deliberations :
Firstly, I am of the opinion that the $5 contribution for a whole year in the context of Hong Kong today cannot be by itself a prohibitive factor in influencing those parents or children who would wish to join the scheme.
Secondly, if the scheme were to be made compulsory, it is quite conceivable that the enrolment may be increased on paper, but it does not necessarily follow that the actual attendance at doctors clinics will proportionately increase. As this is the ultimate objective of the scheme, the mere increase in enrolment without actual participation by the students would appear to defeat the objective, not to mention the fact that public funds may be expended for services not actually rendered.
Thirdly, compulsion may not be well received by some of the parents and students in particular as the School Mcdical Service Scheme is very much a personal health service and the present arrangements afford the the doctors and the school authorities on the one hand and the parents and their children on the other, freedom of choice to serve and be served, in a scheme which is highly personalised.
Finally, Sir, with your permission, I wnture to follow in
Mr. Cheong-Leen's footsteps in quoting from the same School Medical Service Board Report which summarises aptly the views on this complex problem :
Para. 40 of the Report reads :
It
Enrolment being voluntary and school-based the school principal holds the key. His interest and enthusiasm for the scheme is vital, hence it is doubtful whether the normal yardstick should apply to enrolment, since publicity is directed mainly at him and through
him. Rather, it should be a matter of satisfaction that there is
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