First of all, I would like to wish you all and your families a happy new year. With your continuous support and guidance, and with a strong dedicated Council and Secretariat, our Union will surely grow and mature to a new force in the Medical arena.
Undoubtedly the recent incidences of SARS in Taiwan and suspected SARS case in Guangdong remind us not to abandon our duty of safeguarding the health of people of Hong Kong from SARS. To this end, collaboration with colleagues in the public sector is essential. Members will find our Rapid Communication System (RCS) of disseminating up-to-date health information and advice helpful. If you are still not on the list, please supply your rapid communication means to our Secretariat as soon as possible. On the other hand, there is a proposal in the future Centre for Health Protection (please refer to the report of Ad Hoc Committee on Epidemics on page 4 of this Bulletin) that all public and private health service ports be connected by Information Superhighway so as to facilitate territory wide surveillance and epidemiology for disease prevention and control. Your Council will surely urge the Administration to find ways to facilitate our members, especially those in private practice, to join in such a meaningful task to combat infection and dangerous agents posing serious threat to our health.
You may have learned from the press and our RCS in the past 3 weeks that the Insurer Industry intended to limit or even not to offer any Employees Compensation cover for employees of the Medical Profession from 2004. You may wish to note that Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance, our regular Insurer, has confirmed that she would terminate such cover to our members from 1st January 2004 while Sun Hing Insurance Brokers Limited, our insurance broker, and other insurance brokers in the market are helping us to find the best price in the market for the captioned insurance. Members are assured that your Council is working hard to support our members in this regard. You may phone up the Secretariat and any of our Council Members for assistance.
Another problem troubling most of us is the escalating fee for Medical Protection. To me, the Fee Increment for Medical Protection is much a greater problem than that of Employees' Compensation Insurance. If nothing can be done, a lot of colleagues will be driven out of the market in a few years time, just like what have happened in New York, USA and Australia. The Australian Federal Government recently imposed legislation to cap the maximum amount of compensation in medical mishap and to disallow the legal profession sharing claims fees to solicit business. The Australians have solved the medical problem but left many of the legal profession, mostly used to be ambulance tracers, jobless. While in the States, the Bush Government has passed legislation in Florida to cap the medical mishap compensation to US$ 500,000.00 and is now trying to amend law in California to accommodate the similar idea to solve the problem of huge price for medical protection there. As reported previously, we have requested Dr. E K Yeoh to work out similar arrangement as in the USA and Australia to solve the imminent problem of enormous price for Medical Protection. You are rest assured that your Council will try every possible step, e.g. by lobbying the Legislative Councilors, lobbying the Administration (please refer to my letter to Mr. Tung Chee Hwa on pages 13-14 of this Bulletin) and finding new Insurance Agencies for such purpose and you will be informed in due course.
The problem of CME linking with the annual renewal of practising certificate has lingered on for some years. From Harvards report in 1999 till the turning down of our proposed Named Referendum in the Medical Council on the subject in November 2003, there is a firm majority view of our members and the Profession that we support CME and we support Voluntary CME. What else can we do then? You are most welcome to join our Forum on Should CME be linked with Renewal of Annual Practising Certificate? on 11th January 2004 and to contribute to our way forward on the matter.
Following the July First (71) March in Hong Kong, 2004 is the election year for the Legislative Council as well as for the Medical profession. The cry for democracy is getting stronger and stronger among citizens of all ages in Hong Kong. While in our Medical world, a democratic move has already started two years ago with the agreement that 5 more seats would be returned by the general election among the profession in the future Medical Council. The recent incident of SARS saga and argument for Liver Transplant Centres showed that the silent majority of our Profession is getting more outspoken. The increased number of vote cast in the recent Medical Council election signified the outcry of members for more democracy. At this juncture, I must thank all of you to elect me again into the Medical Council by giving me the highest number of votes among the five contestants. From now on, you may come across a lot of smearing and barking in the media on members of our Profession as in the recent years before election. The most important thing YOU should remember is to carefully screen and digest information received and to be able to distinguish true from false materials. In this way, you would then be able to cast the correct vote in a few months time and would not be cheated anymore.
Hope you can join our walk with a brilliant 2004!
Dr. Yeung Chiu Fat Henry