Circular No. 2118, 12th April 2002
As I have mentioned before, our Trade Union will be born in Spring this year. According to the Registry of Trade Unions(職工會登記局), the registration procedures of our Trade Union will be completed by the end of April 2002. By that time, we will announce the date of the First General Meeting, probably in the end of May or beginning of June 2002, for the return of the first Council of the Trade Union. We are able to maintain the English name of our Trade Union, i.e. Hong Kong Doctors Union. However, the Chinese name of “香港西醫聯會“ is unacceptable to the Registry of Trade Unions for the reason that “聯會” should correspond to“federation” instead of “union”. Your Council decided to preserve the name of Hong Kong Doctors Union. This explains why we have made the last minute's change of our Chinese name to “香港西醫工會” which we believe can reflect the role of our Union more clearly and is highly positive for the future development of the Union.
Another hurdle to our registration is that all our Council Members are self- employed, the Registry of Trade Unions will not approve our registration unless there is at least one promoter(發起人) who is an employee. In this regard, we are fortunate that Prof. Lam Shun Chiu Dennis was very supportive and agreed graciously to be one of the promoters, and thus have our problem solved swiftly. I would like to thank Prof. Lam for his kind assistance in this matter. Prof. Lam is a HKDU member and the Chairman of the Board of Academic Advisers of HKDU.
Now it’s the time for you to participate and to help form the future Trade Union. The only thing you have to do is to fill in a very simplified Membership Application Form in the enclosed Circular No. 2124. I sincerely appeal to you all to fill in the Form and send it back to the HKDU Secretariat as soon as possible. Many thanks! For your information, your Entrance Fee will be waived according to the Constitution and Rules of the Trade Union. Another important object of the Trade Union is to take over the whole or any part of the assets belonging to, and to undertake all or any of the liabilities of an incorporated association known as Hong Kong Doctors Union Limited (香港西醫聯會有限公司) so that there will be no disruption to business and services as a result of the change to a trade union.
We have created a new category in the membership of the Trade Union called “Honorary Members”. Any Ordinary Member or Life Member who retires from active medical practice on account of age or ill-health (but not on any other grounds) may, subject to the decision of the Council, be appointed an Honorary Member who shall not have the right to vote but may participate in the benefits provided by the Trade Union.
So please apply now to be a member of the Hong Kong Doctors Union(香港西醫工會) before the Hong Kong Doctors Union Limited is dissolved!
The continuous economic recession in Hong Kong has triggered off vigorous discussions on two issues in the general public and in our profession recently. Firstly, we have the huge budget deficit of the HKSAR government and secondly, for the first time since the Hospital Authority has been established, she recorded a deficit of $200 million. The figure is projected to rise to $580 million in the next financial year.
Colleagues working for the Hospital Authority claimed that they had been exploited. They are suing the authority for compensation for what they insisted are legal holiday entitlements accumulated over the years. If they won, the doctors could be reimbursed as much as $1 billion. At the same time, colleagues in private practice are angry about the heavily subsidized public medical services expanding so aggressively that they are now in danger of being driven out of business.
Such contentious issues arouse vigorous public debate in the media nearly out of control. Instead of debating the substantial issues, some doctors have started personal attacks. The easiest way out for some politicians is to point an accusing finger at the top officials of the authority and blame them for the problems. Such malicious verbal assaults are detrimental to a healthy and constructive debate on the issues. We must not allow ourselves to be blinded by emotion.
Colleagues’ discussion should focus on how to promote efficiency through fair competition between public and private providers and better management of the government budget on health and overall health expenditure. We should work out a better division of labour between the public and private sectors. There should be more discussions on the ways of collaboration of colleagues in the two sectors. You are cordially invited to comment on my article “Will HA overwhelm the private sector through Public Private Interface?” enclosed with this circular. At the same time, members who are interested in participating in the Public Private Interface should read the enclosed Circular No. 2126 and return the completed Reply Slip to us as soon as possible so that we can start working on the Regional Public Private Interface Networks.
In the HKDU Sunday Afternoon Symposium of 17.3.2002 in the Princess Margaret Hospital, the bitter way in which some colleagues had spoken on Public Private Interface will not be conducive to a quick recovery of our medical system. We should calm down to work in harmony for a brighter future!
Dr. Yeung Chiu Fat Henry
正如本人曾說過，我們的工會即將在今年春季誕生。根據職工會登記局，我們工會的登記手續將於2002年四月底辦妥。屆時，我們會宣佈第一屆會員大會的日期－大約五月底或六月初－去選出首屆幹事會。我們能夠保存工會的英文名字，即Hong Kong Doctors Union。不過中文名「香港西醫聯會」卻不被職工會登記局局長接納，理由是"聯會"應解釋為"federation"而不是"union"。工會籌備委員會決定要保存Hong Kong Doctors Union的名字，這是我們於最後一分鐘改了中文名為「香港西醫工會」的原因。
另一個登記手續的重大障礙是因所有會董會的成員均為自僱人士，職工會登記局要我們起碼有一個發起人是僱員才肯受理。因此，本會邀請了林順潮教授擔任工會發起人之一，承蒙林教授接受邀請，本人非常感激林教授對我會一直以來的支持及鼓勵。林教授是本會會員及HKDU「延續醫學教育」學術顧問委員會主席。
現在是大家參與及扶助成立這個工會的時候。你只需要填好隨著通訊2124號附上的已簡化的香港西醫工會入會申請表便可。我懇請全體會員能夠總動員儘早填妥這表格及交回工會秘書處。萬二分多謝！告訴大家，按工會的會章，你的入會費用是全免的。因工會另外一個重要的宗旨是接收香港西醫聯會有限公司全部或任何部份的資產，和承擔聯會任何或一切的負債，故此沒有因轉變為工會而產生任何營運與服務會員上的故障。
我們增加了一項「榮譽會員」的新會藉。任何普通或永久會員因年老或疾病而退休者(但不可因其他理由)，在得到幹事會接納下，均可以申請成為榮譽會員，繼續分享工會會員一切福利，但沒有投票權。
所以懇請大家在香港西醫聯會未解散前，現在立即申請加入香港西醫工會成為我們的一份子！
香港的持續經濟衰退激發最近公眾及醫學界熱切討論兩個問題。其一是特區政府的龐大預算案赤字；其二是醫管局成立以來首次錄得2億元的赤字，這個赤字下一年度將會高至5億8千萬元。
在醫管局裏服務的同事認為他們被剝削利用了。他們現正控告醫管局要賠償他們堅持是多年來合法假期的補薪。若他們勝訴，醫生將共獲得10億元的補償！與此同時，私家同業亦被獲得重金資助的公營醫療體系極度膨脹毫不客氣地去搶客人，至令到有關門大吉之危而憤怒。
這些具爭議性的問題引致最近在傳媒中激烈爭論，而有點失控趨勢。一些醫生甚至開始作人身攻擊而不在具體問題上去辯論。一些政治家最容易的技倆是把問題責任全推卸到管理高層身上去。這些惡意語言上的攻擊，實有礙於對問題作健康建設性的討論。我們不應因情緒而瞎了眼睛。
同業們應該集中注意力去討論如何控制政府的醫療支出及避免醫療總開支不合理地上漲，如何使公營和私營服務得以公平競爭，提高效益。我們應該商議出一個公私醫療上更好的分工。更應在兩方面的同業合作上作多些討論。謹請大家對本期通訊刊出的拙文「醫管局在公私醫療合作上會否全面吞併私營機構？」隨便發表意見，同時，亦請有意參與公私醫療合作的會員閱讀附上的通訊2126號和將回條儘快交回我會。好讓我們能開始建立地區性的公私營合作網絡。
於2002年3月17 日在瑪嘉烈醫院舉行的星期日研討會上，一些同業對公私營合作所吐出的苦水和情緒化的語句，並不能有助醫療制度的復甦，我們應該安靜下來，一同和諧工作去為創造美好的明天而努力！
楊超發醫生
C2118c2002/Othercir(9)