The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced today (September 27) that a blue crab sample was detected with a veterinary drug, chloramphenicol. The CFS is following up on the case…. read more
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has accepted the advice of the Disaster Relief Fund Advisory Committee and approved from the Disaster Relief Fund three grants totalling $15.721 million to three agencies… read more
Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Development, Mr Michael Wong, at the question-and-answer session of the media session today (September 27) on the quarterly land sale programme for October to December 2018:
Reporter: As a lot of sites have been allocated for public housing, are there still enough in the land sale programme that allow you to have it for private flats?
Secretary for Development: If you look at the figures for the first three quarters of 2018-19, you will know that in the fourth quarter, we need to put up land that can provide more private housing. I said earlier that the Chief Executive announced in late June this year that there is a site on Anderson Road, providing about 1 160 flats. Originally, it will be put up for tender. The decision has been made that it will be used to provide public housing. As I said before, I used the analogy of left hand and right hand, but here, we are not talking about net addition of land, we are talking about using land either for private housing or public housing. I have also explained the rationale underlying the Government approach. Indeed, we are giving more emphasis to public housing and I think that is something the community would agree with.
Coming back to private housing, we will do the best we can in the remaining time of this year to provide the supply. At this stage, I would not make any conjecture, but you can safely assume that in the fourth quarter, we will be providing more land that would be capable of providing more private housing units than the first three quarters.
Reporter: Did the Chief Executive have a conclusion in her Policy Address? Wouldn’t that actually pre-empt all the work that the Task Force on Land Supply has done and basically make the whole exercise futile because she already has her own ideas in mind and that the public engagement is basically just not really useful?
Secretary for Development: I think the Policy Address is for the lady to call, so the Chief Executive will decide on the exact content to be put into the Policy Address. I will not make any conjecture. As I said before, the public engagement exercise conducted by the Task Force has been most meaningful, very fruitful, in terms of enhancing the understanding in our community about the pros and cons of different options and also about the severe shortage we are facing in terms of land supply. I do think that it is very fruitful and will not be undermined by any other things.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.) read more
To further enhance the emergency ambulance service (EAS), the Fire Services Department (FSD) started a full-scale trial run of a new computer system for the provision of post-dispatch advice (PDA) today (September 27) to assist personnel of the Fire Services Communications Centre (FSCC) in, after dispatching ambulances, providing callers with immediate, comprehensive and appropriate advice on more than 30 types of injuries and sicknesses. The service will be launched on October 4.
Through providing timely and appropriate first-aid advice, the PDA system enables the callers to stabilise patients’ conditions before the arrival of an ambulance crew, and helps reduce the risk of inadvertent mishandling of patients, as well as alleviating the anxiety and distress of both the patients and the callers.
Since May 2011, the FSD has been gradually offering PDA to callers in respect of six common types of injuries and sicknesses, namely bleeding, burns, fracture/dislocation of limbs, convulsion, heat exposure and hypothermia. The new system brings the number to more than 30, covering, among others, physical trauma, loss of consciousness and cardiac arrest. PDA is simple and easy to follow. Also, the computer system will automatically send the patient information to the responding ambulance or fire appliance to enable the responding crew to make better preparation before arrival at the scene. In contrast to the case without PDA, the callers can help to stabilise the patients’ conditions before the arrival of an ambulance. Receiving immediate advice is of paramount importance, especially for those in critical condition.
PDA is an added-value service. The callers for ambulance service are not required to prepare any additional information and initiate a request for the service. The target response time for EAS calls will remain unchanged, i.e. 92.5 per cent of EAS calls can be handled within 12 minutes.
The spokesman for the FSD said that, with the aid of the computer system, the dispatch of ambulances and the provision of advice are handled by separate personnel to ensure no delay in rescue. To ensure the quality of the PDA service, the FSCC personnel are required to receive dedicated training and hold valid Emergency Medical Dispatcher Certificates before they are authorised to provide the service.
The protocols incorporated in the computer system were developed by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch and have been in wide application. At present, similar computer systems and corresponding protocols have been adopted by some 3 000 mobilising centres of emergency services in more than 40 regions, including the Mainland, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia. read more
Police will implement crowd safety management measures and special traffic arrangements to facilitate the public order events to be held on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon on October 1 (Monday). (1) Public procession and public meet… read more