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Health
To prevent and control non-communicable diseases, the government launched Towards 2025: Strategy and Action Plan to Prevent and Control Non-communicable Diseases in Hong Kong, which set out nine targets to be achieved by 2025 and a systematic portfolio of initiatives to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases.
Regulatory Activities
Healthcare Professionals
As at the year end, 14,651 doctors, 2,553 dentists, 10,054 listed and registered Chinese medicine practitioners, 56,723 registered and enrolled nurses, 4,445 midwives, 2,890 pharmacists, 234 chiropractors, 3,250 physiotherapists, 2,224 occupational therapists, 3,767 medical laboratory technologists, 2,220 optometrists, 2,393 radiographers and 472 dental hygienists were registered in Hong Kong.
The Pilot Scheme of Accredited Registers for Healthcare Professions enhances the society-based registration arrangements of healthcare professions not subject to statutory registration, so as to ensure the professional competency of healthcare professionals and provide more information for the public to make informed decisions when choosing service providers. As at end-2018, the Hong Kong Institute of Speech Therapists and the Hong Kong Institute of Audiologists had been accredited and authorised as the accredited healthcare professional bodies responsible for administering the registers of their professions.
Western Medicine
Western medicine in Hong Kong is regulated under the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance. Acting on the authority of the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, the department evaluates and approves applications for the registration of pharmaceutical products, issues licences to drug manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, and takes action against the illegal sale of controlled drugs. The department also enforces regulatory controls on poisons, antibiotics and dangerous drugs for medicinal use.
In 2018, the board approved 3,469 applications to register pharmaceutical products. As at the year end, 17,323 pharmaceutical products were registered.
In April, the department launched a public consultation on the regulation of advanced therapy products. It received broad support for the proposed regulatory control of such products under the existing regulatory framework for pharmaceutical products.
Chinese Medicine
Chinese medicine is regulated under the Chinese Medicine Ordinance, which requires any person engaged in the retail or wholesale of Chinese herbal medicines or the manufacture or wholesale of proprietary Chinese medicines to obtain a licence. The Chinese Medicine Council of Hong Kong is the statutory body that devises and implements regulatory measures for Chinese medicine. All proprietary Chinese medicines must be registered before they can be sold, imported or possessed in Hong Kong. As a transitional arrangement, proprietary Chinese medicines manufactured or sold in Hong Kong on 1 March 1999 are eligible for a transitional registration status if an application is made within a specified period and upon the submission
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