With the arrival of the year 2000, we have to face the problem of Health Care Reform in Hong Kong. The changes in such a reform, be it drastic or minor, would in one way or the other, affect every one of us in our daily medical practice. As such, we should be well prepared to cope with such changes.
In the past year or two, we were indeed living and working in the era of darkness with everyone blaming on us - medical practitioners. The recent media reporting of compulsory CME for non-specialists with its proposed penalty measures by the Chairman of the Medical Council of Hong Kong and the recent negotiation of the President of the Academy of Medicine with the Housing Authority on Primary Medical Care Certificate signifies that such era of darkness started few years ago by some senior members of our profession advocating patients' rights would go unchecked unless medical body like us dare to voice our opinion to counteract such unreasonable and unfair smearing of our colleagues, especially non-specialists, by people not only from outside but mainly within our own profession!
With the introduction of open tendering of Public Estate Clinics by the Hong Kong Housing Authority, many members are concerned about the future of our Association. In the Named Referendum of July 1999, 435 members (28.54%) returned responses to the "Proposal to change the name of Estate Doctors Association Ltd." The results were, as you have already known, 283 members (65.06%) supported the proposal and 148 members (34.02%) against. Among those who did not agree to the proposal, many were concerned con whether the Hong Kong Housing Authority would really cancel our allocation duties on public estate clinics. They asked a similar and understandable question : "Should we decide until things are fixed?
"I am sure with the introduction of the Open Tender system by the Hong Kong Housing Authority in the year 2000, such doubts should be removed from the minds of all those members. The Council think that it is now the time for us, the total membership of the Association, to decide on our future.
As we have mentioned before in the introduction of the Named Referendum of July 1999 and in the two Editorials of EDANEWS, namely "EDA 的新路向，新名字" by Dr. Lam Ying Ming & "Whither Shall We Go?" by Dr. Ho Ock Ling of August & December 1999 respectively, the purposes of such a change of our name are as follows:
We will aim at a wider scope of representation so that more doctors, especially those in private sector, will join us to form a stronger medical body to protect our legal rights and interests;
The restructured body will be open to all doctors in Hong Kong, including those with limited registration; and should play the role of a Doctors' Union to fight against, among others, commercial profiteering-HMOs;
Besides being more proactive in protecting our doctors' rights, the restructured body should provide more services, such as the Medical Protection Plan, to our members. The recent formation of the Standing Committee on Quality Assurance and CME headed by Dr. She Siu Yam will work out CME programme, accreditation and certification for our members, while Dr. Tang Kuen Yan, Convener of the Information Technology Committee, will design more user-friendly CME-on-line programmes for our members, especially those who have to work days and nights in their clinics. On the issue of "All Doctors' Group", please get ready to join in the Group to safeguard our dignity and livelihood when that day comes;
We should be ready to speak out our concerns to the public more often. We will be seeking more representation in the government consultative bodies on health and related matters. At present, issues that deserve follow up are many, such as, Declaration of no conviction on annual practising certificate renewal, Clinical Waste Disposal, Compulsory CME, Legislation on Appointed Medical Practitioners for compulsory annual check up of factory and industrial workers, Private clinics next to Accident and Emergency Departments of public hospitals, Incorporation of Medical Practice, Separation of Dispensing and Consultation, the challenges from the Chinese Medicine Practitioners and most important of all, the future Health Care Reform that requires our thorough thought and inputs.
Are all these new objectives of the Association agreeable to you? We need input from everyone of you in such an important exercise.
Finally, your Council has agreed to put forward "Hong Kong Doctors Union (Limited) [香港西醫聯會(有限公司)]" as the new name of the Association for your perusal and approval. The reason for such is simple - the restructured new association should work for our own rights and interests before anything else. This would be completely different from those objectives of the Hong Kong Medical Association, as mentioned by Dr. Lee Kin Hung on 14th February 2000 in the South China Morning Post, ..."'The Medical Association is not a union, otherwise it would be called the Doctors Association. It is just a professional body.' 'The first (group) we want to serve is the public, then doctors, and lastly our members.'..He (Dr. Lee Kin Hung) said that he had been heavily involved in promotion of patients' rights through the media and his work at the Consumer Council..." The patients' rights have been promoted far too much in the past years and I am sure it is the time for us to protect our own rights too to act as a balance so as to streamline our medical care to the society. Of course, we should work hand in hand with the Hong Kong Medical Association and other medical bodies to promote our community health.Do you wish one day you can proudly say to your children something like this :- "Dear Kids, it's good for you to become a medical practitioner, because of its professional dignity and reputation in the community!" Or you just want to utter an old Chinese song with such a title :- " 往事只能回味？" The choice is yours!
千禧年已到臨，我們正要面對香港醫療改革問題。改革無論大小也引起變動，或多或少影響每個醫生每日的工作，故此我們該作好準備去應付這些改變。
近年來，日子確實黑暗，醫生成了過街老鼠，眾矢之的。前些時因某些前輩同業熱烈倡導病人權益而始創的黑暗時代，會因最近傳媒報導關於針對非專科醫生的強制性延續醫學教育(CME)和醫務委員會主席提出的懲罰方案，再加上最近專科學院院長與房委會關於基層醫學証書(PMCC)的蹉商這兩件事而變本加厲，更為黑暗。除非是有某些像我會般醫學團體能對公眾說些公道話駁斥污衊我們的同僚，尤其是污衊非專科同僚的謬論，而這些謬論主要來自同業中人而非來自外人！
房委會既將分配診所改為公開投標，許多會員自然關注本會的前途，在1999年7月的記名投票問卷中，435會員（28.54%）答覆了“提議更改新邨西醫協會有限公司會名”，答案大家已知是283會員（65.06%）贊同建議而148會員（34.02﹪）反對。反對建議者之中，有許多是擔心房委會會因此取消我們抽籤分配公共屋邨診所的工作，他們同聲問一個可以理解的問題： “應否等待已成定局之後才決定？”
我肯定2000年房委會引用公開投標方式後，大家已不再為此擔憂了。會董會認為現在是我們全體會員去決定我們的將來的時候了。
新邨西醫協會改名有以下的原因，請參照1999年7月的記名調查問卷的前言，1999年8月EDANEWS林英明醫生的評論 “EDA新路向，新名字”和1999年12月EDANEWS何岳齡醫生的評論「EDA往何處去？」：
你贊同本會這些新的目標嗎？在這如此重要及艱巨的思維工作中，我們確實需要閣下每一位的參與。
最後，會董會已決定以 “香港西醫聯會(有限公司)[Hong Kong Doctors Union (Limited)]”作為本會新名稱，給大家考慮和贊同，理由是十分簡單 ¾ 新改組後的會應該把我們的合法權益擺在第一位，這便與香港醫學會的目標大相逕庭，如南華早報二零零零年二月十四日刊登李健鴻醫生所說，… ‘‘‘醫學會並非工會，否則它該稱為醫生會，它只是一個專業團體。’ ‘它的服務對象第一是公眾，其次是醫生，最後才是本會(醫學會)會員。…’李健鴻醫生說他一向透過傳媒和他在消費者委員會的工作中努力提倡病人的權益。…”(以上從南華早報報導中翻譯過來) 病人權益近年來已被推廣宣傳得太多了，我肯定現在是最適當時機也為醫生的合理權益推廣，去取得一個平衡，而將社會的醫療照顧納入正途。當然，我會當會與香港醫學會和其他醫生團體合作，去推動本港社會的健康。
你是不是渴望有一天，你能夠驕傲地對子女說像以下的說話：- “親愛的孩子，做醫生很好，因為醫生享有專業的尊嚴和在社會中享有聲譽”，抑或你只希望默默地哼一首老歌，歌名是：- “往事只能回味”？任君選擇！
楊超發醫生