ENG-2008 — Page 214

162 | Health

launched in February 2008, which subsidised the cataract operations performed by private ophthalmologists on patients participating in the scheme. During the year, a total of 76 ophthalmologists took part in the programme and 4576 patients enrolled in the programme, of which 2 474 underwent cataract surgery.

The Hospital Authority also started carrying out the PPP pilot scheme in Tin Shui Wai in June. Chronically-ill patients living in Tin Shui Wai North whose condition is stable, but who need long-term follow-up treatment at general outpatient clinics. may join the scheme. Participating patients receive a Government subsidy and are allowed to choose any doctor taking part in the project to attend to them. At the end of 2008, six private doctors and 722 patients had enrolled in the project. About 1 000 chronically-ill patients are expected to benefit from the project.

Developing Electronic Health Record (EHR) Sharing

To explore the feasibility and acceptability of electronic health record (EHR) sharing, the Government continues to implement the 'Public-Private-Interface Electronic Patient Record Sharing' pilot project. It enables participating private hospitals, private practitioners and other healthcare providers to access their patients' records kept at the Hospital Authority, subject to the patient's consent. By the end of 2008, more than 1 300 private healthcare professionals had taken part in the project, including all of the territory's 12 private hospitals and 10 other private or non-governmental organisations providing healthcare services to the elderly and chronically-ill patients. More than 54 000 patients had also enrolled in the project.

Meanwhile, the Government is joining hands with the public and private healthcare sectors, IT service providers and stakeholders in the community to develop a territory-wide, patient-oriented eHR sharing system and will set up an office under the Food and Health Bureau to co-ordinate the work on developing the system and to address matters such as policies, legal implications, privacy and security, by leveraging the Hospital Authority's systems and know-how.

Health Promotion

Healthy Lifestyle

The Central Health Education Unit of the Department of Health is responsible for formulating the direction of public health education. In the 2007-08 financial year, the Department of Health spent $200 million on health promotion.

In 2008, the unit carried out a number of promotional activities, including one called 'Exercise Prescription Project' which encourages physical activities; campaigns on preventing infectious diseases such as the one on proper use of antibiotics and the publication of leaflets on health in different languages for the territory's cosmopolitan community.

Nearly 80 per cent of Hong Kong's primary and secondary schools are today participating in a campaign on healthy eating, called '[email protected]' launched in 2006. To date, the campaign's website has recorded almost 35 million hits. The Department of Health is also running a campaign named '[email protected]' in which some 440 eateries took part this year.