Special scheme introduced for delivering prescription medications to Hong Kong people in Guangdong and Fujian with urgent need for medications

     The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government today (February 24) introduced a special scheme to deliver prescription medications to Hong Kong residents who are currently located in Guangdong and Fujian Provinces with urgent need for medications.
 
     A Government spokesman said that in accordance with the Compulsory Quarantine of Certain Persons Arriving at Hong Kong Regulation, all persons who have stayed in the Mainland for any period during the 14 days preceding arrival in Hong Kong will be subject to compulsory quarantine for 14 days. Given the compulsory quarantine measures, some Hong Kong people in Guangdong and Fujian Provinces will be unable to do day trips to Hong Kong to attend follow-up consultations to replenish their medications and return to the Mainland on the same day as they had done so previously. Although their family members may collect the prescription medications for them from clinics, they cannot deliver the drugs to the Mainland owing to legal restrictions at present.
 
     To address the concern that the prescription medications taken by the aforementioned Hong Kong residents may soon be running out, the HKSAR Government has introduced the special scheme to deliver prescription medications to them. The special scheme is being implemented while the Regulation is in force.
 
     The spokesman said, "The scheme is limited to the delivery of medications that are considered necessary and are prescribed by registered doctors for the Hong Kong residents concerned. Requests for delivery of other items (including over-the-counter medications and Chinese medicines) will not be entertained.
 
     "To ensure that cases with urgent and insurmountable need for medications will be handled with priority, the scheme will first process cases in which prescription drugs will run out on or before March 31, 2020."
 
     The spokesman added that the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) already has offices and a well-established service network on the Mainland. The HKSAR Government has commissioned the FTU to provide services for this special scheme on a pro bono basis.
 
     Through its Hong Kong and Mainland offices, the FTU will help Hong Kong residents who have appointments for follow-up consultations with the Hospital Authority (HA) and the Department of Health (DH) to collect prescription medications at HA or DH clinics, or to collect the prescribed medicines that are taken to the FTU by family members of the Hong Kong residents concerned from the clinics of the HA or the DH or private medical practitioners. After verification and reports to the government department concerned, the prescribed drugs will be couriered, at the cost of the HKSAR Government, to the Mainland offices of the FTU for onward couriering to the persons concerned.
 
     The courier charges will be borne by the HKSAR Government and the FTU will not charge the service recipients or their families concerned any service fees under the scheme. The personal data collected will only be used for provision of the service under this scheme and will not be used for any other purposes.
 
     Hong Kong residents who require the service may call the Social Welfare Department's 24-hour Hotline (Tel: 2343 2255), or the hotline of the FTU Hong Kong office (Tel: 3652 5833) from 9am to 10pm daily for details.