TNAG-1855-FCO40-2630-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-memoranda-and-minutes-of-me-1989 — Page 196

HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 8 March 1989

香港立法局

·一九八九年三月八日

69

population which depends on heavily subsidized medical and health services. In this connection, I should point out, Sir, that any Hong Kong resident who requires hospitalization is admitted on demand to our public hospitals at the cost of only $26 per day, when the average cost of an acute hospital bed is $1,050 per day. There must be few places in the world where such a wide range of modern and sophisticated medical treatment is available to the bulk of the population at such low cost. While the Government remains firmly committed to a policy which ensures that no one is deprived, through lack of means, of the medical treatment he requires, we must recognize the challenges that this policy presents.

Sir, the evidence of Hong Kong's economic success and increasing prosperity is all around us. The people of Hong Kong have worked hard to achieve this prosperity and it is natural and proper that they should expect that prosperity to secure for them better standards of medical and health care.

It is also natural and proper that the dedicated and hardworking staff who man our public hospitals should seek to provide an ever improving standard of care to their patients and that they should, at times, feel frustrated at the apparent inability of the system to achieve these improvements. I can assure Dr. LEONG and other Members that the Government is indeed sincere in its efforts to meet their concerns. The coming months will prelude major changes to the way the public hospital system is managed and operated. Worries and uncertainties about the future are inevitable and entirely understandable. But we must ensure, at all cost, that standards of patient care do not suffer and that the present high level of public confidence in the quality of the public hospital system, and the professional integrity and dedication of our staff, is maintained.

CHIEF SECRETARY: Sir, I would like to speak briefly in support of the comprehensive and positive comments by the Secretary for Health and Welfare.

When emotions are running high as they are at present amongst some hospital staff, it is important that we retain a sense of perspective about the problems that confront us. Our record of achievements in the field of health care over the period of the last two decades are considerable and Hong Kong can derive satisfaction from the fact that the standard of health of this community is very good in comparison with many developed countries: for example, our infant mortality rate is lower than that of the United Kingdom, life expectancy is longer than that in the United Kingdom and the high incidence of tuberculosis, poliomyelitis and epidemics, which were of such concern two decades ago, are no longer a worry.