TNAG-1363-FCO40-1809-Hong-Kong-Hansard-reports-and-minutes-of-the-meetings-of-the-1985 — Page 13

Supplementary to Question No. 7 in the

Legislative Council on 13.11.1985

Dr. Lam asked in Cantonese :

(the following is the interpretation of his questions.)

Sir, as civil servants and their families mostly speak Cantonese will the Government

consider changing the practice of requiring those who are qualified for treatment in

such clinics to speak English as this is very inconvenient to most of them ?

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Secretary for Health and Welfare :

type referred to in the question and in addition to this about 54 general out-patient

clinics throughout the territory are available for other civil servants and a number

of these clinics' operative system whereby civil servants and their families receive

priority and the Government view is that the obligation to provide satisfactory

medical treatment to civil servants is adequately provided dfor in this way.

Sir, there are only two families clinics of the

Mr. LEE Yu-tai : 0 Sir, are doctors in families clinics assisted by nursing staff

and other supporting staff who speak Cantonese ? If the answer is yes, will they be

able to do some interpretation ?

Secretary for Health and Welfare: Yes, Sir, This will be possible.

Mr. Richard Lai :

-

Sir, according to the answer given by the Secretary for Health

and Welfare does it mean that the Government is still encountering difficulty in

recruiting Cantonese-speaking doctors ?

Secretary for Health and Welfare : Sir, there is less difficulty than there used to

and Health

be but there is still some problem and the Medical/Department still does recruit a

number of doctors from overseas to fill specific posts including those in the

families clinics.

Dr. Ip :

Sir, my question is partly answered but is this problem of finding

sufficient local officers to fill the posts in question a general problem which

affects the Medical and Health Department across the board or is it specifically confined

to the families clinics? If the answer is of the latter, that is if the answer is yes,

could the Secretary inform us why the families clinics have this problem where as

the other clinics do not ?

Secretary for Health and Welfare : Sir, the problem is a general problem across the

service although I think because of the nature of the families clinics and the patients

that they treat there perhaps is a particular problem in some cases.