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Health

The Hospital Authority's three-year higher diploma programme provides basic registered nurse training and enrolled 300 students in 2015. Another 100 pupil nurses were admitted to its two-year enrolled nurse basic training programme.

The Hospital Authority's Institute of Advanced Nursing Studies seeks to strengthen specialty care training for nurses and encourage them to improve professional standards through continuous learning. The institute provides simulation training for new graduates to strengthen their skills in clinical care and medical emergencies. Experienced nurses can apply for scholarships to attend overseas training for international exposure.

Laboratory Services

Government Laboratory

The Government Laboratory offers a comprehensive range of analytical, investigatory and advisory services to support the government in upholding its commitments to the protection of public health. In the financial year 2014-15, it spent $197 million on providing the required services.

In 2015, the laboratory carried out 196,339 tests on a wide range of foods to ensure they were fit for consumption and complied with the legal requirements. It also conducted 14,317 tests arising from investigations into food complaints. The laboratory outsources some routine testing to private laboratories to better utilise its resources for developing new testing methods and coping with a broadened scope of testing services, and to develop the capacity of the private laboratory sector.

In 2015, the laboratory performed more than 59,800 tests on pharmaceutical products and over 82,900 tests on Chinese medicine to ensure they met recognised quality and safety standards and to verify proprietary Chinese medicines were free from western drugs adulteration or harmful ingredients. The laboratory also supported investigations into the use of undeclared western drugs in preparations and incidents of intoxication suspected to have been caused by misused or contaminated Chinese herbal medicine. Under the Chinese Medicine Ordinance (Cap 549), proprietary Chinese medicine must be registered before it can be imported, manufactured and sold in Hong Kong. The laboratory also provides analytical support to the Department of Health in certifying the chemical makers of unregistered proprietary Chinese medicine, and helps the department develop the Hong Kong Chinese Materia Medica Standards. As well, it conducts year-round surveillance of tar and nicotine yields in cigarettes; in 2015, more than 12,000 checks on data declared by tobacco traders were carried out and the results were released to the public.

Public Health Laboratory Services

The department's Public Health Laboratory Services Branch conducts laboratory tests for clinical and surveillance specimens and provides clinical diagnostic and public health laboratory services to the public and private sectors for patient care and for other public health purposes.

The branch's Public Health Laboratory Centre is designated by the WHO as a National Influenza Centre, a National Poliovirus Laboratory, a National Measles Laboratory of the Hong Kong

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