The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, visited the Elderly Health Centre (EHC) and Maternal and Child Health Centre (MCHC) under the Department of Health (DH) today (August 14) to learn more about their services for elders, infants, young children and women. He also met front-line staff of the department.
Accompanied by the Director of Health, Dr Constance Chan, Mr Cheung started the visit from the Wan Chai Elderly Health Centre at Southorn Centre and received a briefing from officers on services provided by the Elderly Health Service, including clinical, outreach and public health services.
Mr Cheung then toured facilities of the centre and was briefed about its services for the elderly, including health assessment, medical consultation, counselling, health education and allied health services. The DH provides primary health care services for the elderly aged 65 and above through its 18 EHCs.
Mr Cheung pointed out that Hong Kong was facing an ageing population and thus provision of elderly health service would be particularly important. He was pleased to learn that the centres adopted a cross-disciplinary approach to provide primary health care for the elderly under a family medicine setting. The purpose is to help the elderly identify health risks and detect disease early for timely intervention with a view to promoting healthy ageing and improving the elderly's self-care ability.
Mr Cheung then visited the Tang Chi Ngong Maternal and Child Health Centre at Tang Chi Ngong Specialist Clinic where he received briefings on various services provided by the 31 MCHCs under the DH. The services include child health services, maternal services, family planning service and Cervical Screening Programme.
Mr Cheung commended the MCHCs for providing immunization vaccination services for infants and young children, as well as child health and developmental surveillance, including physical examination, growth and developmental monitoring as well as hearing and vision screening which had laid an important foundation for our next generation.
During the visit, Mr Cheung also met with front-line officers to learn more about their daily work. He also encouraged them to keep up their professionalism and dedication to serve the public.
Follow this news feed: East Asia