Tag Archives: China

     The Chief Executive’s Council of Advisers chaired by the Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, held its second meeting today (November 8) and focused discussions, having regard to the latest Policy Address, on how to enhance the role of Hong Kong in fostering regional and global economic and trade collaboration, as well as on the relevant external factors including the global economic outlook and the impact of geopolitics on Hong Kong in the coming year.

     The Chief Executive announced his second Policy Address last month, introducing an array of measures to consolidate the existing advantages of Hong Kong and explore new growth potential for the economy. The Government strives to adopt an industry-oriented approach as the policy priority, boost the economy through investment, drive growth through infrastructural creation and expand the economic capacity of Hong Kong.

     The Council meeting was held in the Central Government Offices. The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Chan Kwok-ki; the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan; the Secretary for Justice, Mr Paul Lam, SC; the Director of Chief Executive’s Office, Ms Carol Yip; and the Head of Chief Executive’s Policy Unit, Dr Stephen Wong, were in attendance, alongside some members participating in the discussion through videoconferencing.

     Apart from focusing on the relevant strategic measures on economic development covered in the Policy Address, the Council also held in-depth discussions on the trend of global economic development and geopolitics in the coming year, as well as on how Hong Kong could grasp the opportunities and address the challenges for creating strong impetus for growth and improving people’s livelihood amid the unprecedented changes currently at play.

     The advisers were supportive of the policy directions put forth in the Policy Address, and agreed that Hong Kong should continue its efforts of capitalising on the unique advantage of having the strong support of the country and being closely connected to the world under “one country, two systems”. The advisers also supported that Hong Kong should proactively integrate into the country’s development, while maintaining a high degree of internationalisation and strengthening regional and global collaboration, exemplifying the role as an important node of the national and international dual circulation.

     Mr Lee said, “I sincerely thank the advisers for their support for my new Policy Address, which has showcased the Government’s all-out efforts of introducing immediate as well as short, medium and long-term measures for Hong Kong as it fully recovers from the epidemic. The Policy Address covers micro and internal perspectives for Hong Kong on one hand, and deals with macro and external factors on the other. It also introduces policy measures to connect Hong Kong with the country and the rest of the world. In order to bring Hong Kong to new heights while managing the underlying risks, we must fully appraise the possible impact of the external environment on Hong Kong to ensure that the measures covered in the Policy Address can be implemented effectively.

     “The Council has a strong line-up of domestic and international elites, who have in-depth knowledge of and insights into global political and economic developments and trends. The meeting today has provided my team and myself with a lot of valuable advice and useful reference, which will help us take forward the initiatives introduced in the Policy Address, so that we can build a better Hong Kong together by leveraging our unique advantage of converging both the China and global opportunities.”

     The Government established the Council in March 2023 to advise the Chief Executive on the strategic development of Hong Kong, leveraging opportunities from national and global developments. read more

     The Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, Miss Alice Mak, and the Permanent Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, Ms Shirley Lam, attended the Women Sector Dialogue on “The Chief Executive’s 2023 Policy Address” today (November 8). They introduced the policy measures related to the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau (HYAB) featured in the Policy Address to representatives of local women’s organisations and members of the Women’s Commission, and listened to the opinions of the participants. 

     During the dialogue, Miss Mak introduced the key initiatives related to the facilitation of family and women’s development in the Policy Address. She pointed out that the Government attaches great importance to the support of women’s development. Following the allocation of additional funding to establish the Women Empowerment Fund last year, the HYAB will set up a dedicated Women Affairs Team and designate the post of Commissioner for Women Affairs to steer work related to women’s affairs. The HYAB’s key initiatives in the aspect of family and women’s development for the coming year include launching a one-stop family and women information portal; organising the first Family and Women Development Summit; introducing a maintenance mediation pilot scheme through the Community Care Fund, launching a new five-year Funding Scheme on the Promotion of Family Education, etc. 

     Participants attending the dialogue responded positively to the relevant measures. In particular, the designation of the post of Commissioner for Women Affairs responds to the aspiration of the women sector. Participants also actively shared their views on taking forward various initiatives in relation to the promotion of women matters and facilitation of family education, and more.

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     Following is a question by Dr the Hon Johnny Ng and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Development, Mr David Lam, in the Legislative Council today (November 8):   Question:        It has be… read more

     The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department today (November 8) released the test results of a targeted food surveillance project on the nutrition labelling of prepackaged instant noodles. The results of 40 samples tested were all satisfactory.

     “The CFS collected samples from different retail outlets for the targeted food surveillance project. Tests were conducted to check if the energy content and specified nutrient content (total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sugars, sodium, protein, carbohydrates, and more) are consistent with the declared values on their nutrition labels,” a spokesman for the CFS said.

     The Food and Drugs (Composition and Labelling) Regulations (Cap. 132W) require all applicable prepackaged foods to list the ingredients and the content of energy plus seven core nutrients, namely carbohydrates, protein, total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, sodium and sugars, and regulate any associated nutrition claims.

     Nutrition labelling can assist consumers in making informed food choices, encourage food manufacturers to apply sound nutrition principles in the formulation of foods, and regulate misleading or deceptive labels and claims. According to Section 61 of the Public Health and Municipal Services Ordinance (Cap. 132), if any person falsely describes food or misleads as to the nature, substance or quality of the food on a label of the food sold by him or her, he or she shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a maximum fine of $50,000 and six months’ imprisonment upon conviction.

     The CFS will continue to conduct surveillance on other food samples to check if their energy content and specified nutrient content are consistent with the declared values on their nutrition labels, and the results will be released in due course. The spokesman reminded the food trade to comply with the law, and urged members of the public to pay attention to the information on nutrition labels when purchasing food to make informed food choices so as to achieve a balanced diet and stay healthy. read more

     Following is a question by the Hon Chan Hoi-yan and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Health, Dr Libby Lee, in the Legislative Council today (November 8):

Question:

     At present, the Hospital Authority does not offer specialist outpatient services on dermatology, and relevant services are provided by the nine dermatology clinics under the Department of Health (DH). However, it has been reported that the waiting time for such clinics is too long. Regarding the provision of diagnoses and treatments for eczema patients, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) whether it knows the number of eczema patients seeking consultation at public hospitals because of eczema in each of the past five years;

(2) whether it knows the respective numbers of patients with severe eczema who were referred to the dermatology clinics for follow-up through private healthcare institutions and public hospitals in each of the past five years;

(3) whether it knows the longest, shortest and average waiting time of new cases at the dermatology clinics in each of the past five years (set out in a table);

(4) whether it knows the total number of specialists in dermatology in the public healthcare system at present and, among them, the respective numbers of those working in DH and those who are residents at public hospitals; and

(5) whether it will consider establishing a “dermatology specialist treatment centre” to centrally handle severe eczema cases, and setting up a fleet of “mobile clinics for dermatology specialist services” to provide nursing care for eczema patients with relatively mild conditions in the community, so as to divert eczema patients to different units for receiving services; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

President,

     Eczema is a common group of skin diseases. The main symptoms are itch, redness, swelling or dryness and cracking of the skin. Most cases presented with mild symptoms, and are diagnosed and managed mainly by doctors in primary healthcare. Generally, the condition can be improved and controlled after being prescribed mild to moderate topical steroid ointments and strengthening skin care. For more serious or urgent cases, doctors would refer the patients to dermatology clinics under the Social Hygiene Service of the Department of Health (DH). 

     In dermatology specialists’ service, topical steroids or non-steroid ointments and oral anti-itch drugs of different strengths are prescribed according to the conditions of the patients, with strengthened skin care education, checking and avoiding of skin irritants or possible allergens that may be exposed in daily life, and follow-up on medication compliance. For some of the cases where the condition of the patient is not satisfactorily improved, the use of systemic oral drugs or light therapy would be further considered according to the therapeutic ladder. 

     The reply, in consultation with the DH and the Hospital Authority (HA), to the question raised by the Hon Chan Hoi-yan is as follows:

(1) The numbers of patients diagnosed with eczema in the General Out-patient Clinics (GOPCs) of the HA in the past five years are as follows: 
 

	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23
Number of eczema patients in GOPCs	82 093	77 054	81 843	74 768	56 028

Note: The Specialist Out-patient Clinics under the HA does not maintain statistics on eczema patients.

(2) and (3) According to the data maintained by the DH, in 2022 (full year) and 2023 (as at September 30), there were 32 696 and 25 104 new cases respectively referred to the DH (including referrals from private medical institutions and public hospitals).  Among them, 3 923 (12 per cent) and 3 665 (14.6 per cent) cases respectively were assessed and triaged as new cases with serious skin diseases. The DH does not maintain the statistics of patients with severe eczema referred to dermatology clinics from private medical institutions and public hospitals respectively.

     With effect from 2018, the Social Hygiene Service under the DH has adopted a triage system for new cases in dermatology specialty to ensure new cases with serious skin diseases will be cared with priority. This type of new cases will in general be arranged to be seen within eight weeks.

     The DH started to maintain the information of case waiting time systematically since the fourth quarter of 2021. In 2022 and 2023 (as at September 30), all new cases with serious skin diseases were arranged to be seen within eight weeks according to the performance pledge, with a median waiting time of 2.7 and 2.9 weeks respectively. As for other new cases with stable condition, the median waiting time was both 90 weeks, while the overall longest waiting time was 178 weeks and 183 weeks respectively.

(4) and (5) Currently, there are 116 specialists in Dermatology and Venereology on the Specialist Register of the Medical Council of Hong Kong in Hong Kong where most are in private practice. There are 29 doctors serving in the Social Hygiene Service under the DH. Among them, nine are specialists in Dermatology and Venereology, while the remaining 20 doctors are members of the Hong Kong College of Physicians and have finished Basic Physician Training. For the HA, there are eight doctors providing dermatology services, among whom four are specialists in Dermatology and Venereology. In addition to consultation, specialists in the Social Hygiene Service under the DH also provide support and coaching to other doctors in the Social Hygiene Service to maintain and improve the service quality of local dermatology specialty and to train more local specialists in Dermatology. 

     Eczema patients with relatively mild conditions are generally manageable by the primary healthcare doctors whom they are familiar with in a holistic approach and most cases do not require referral to dermatology clinics for follow-up. There are a total of nine clinics under the Social Hygiene Service of the DH that provide specialist dermatology service in different districts. These clinics can provide convenient and accessible service for cases with more serious or urgent cases which require referral to dermatology clinics. There is no current plan for the Government to set up treatment centre to treat serious eczema cases in a centralised way. read more