I have suggested in my previous message that we can qualify to be patriots by protecting our patients from illegal drug sale and medical practice. To become the best patriots, we should provide the best care to our patients by constantly updating our medical knowledge.
In fact, promoting quality health care to the community through CME is one of the two major objectives of our Union. To show our strong commitment towards CME, your Council is going to launch the Inaugural Issue of HKDU Semi Annual CME Bulletin to all doctors in Hong Kong free of charge very soon. However, certain members of our Profession did for the past years insist on Mandatory CME to make sure we doctors learn throughout our whole career life. The Medical Council of Hong Kong (MCHK) is even determined to have Mandatory CME implemented in 2005 but we learned that it would never happen due to the lack of legislative slot in the Legislative Council.
As such, there is still adequate time for further action from us. There is still uncertainty in the final outcome on the matter. Now, please learn from what happened in the past nine months on the issue of linkage of renewal of annual practising certificate with CME so as to plan our way forward.
On my election to Council of the Hong Kong Medical Association (HKMA) in July 2003, I immediately proposed an agenda item to revisit the issue of Mandatory CME in the HKMA Council and the issue was finally discussed and deliberated taking up nearly one whole HKMA Council Meeting in October 2003 which led to a formal proposal to MCHK for opinion survey within the Medical Profession on the matter.
In August 2003, Hong Kong Doctors Union forwarded a request to the MCHK for a named referendum on the matter.
In my campaign letter on election to the Medical Council in October 2003, my most important platform is If re-elected, I promise to work in collaboration with my fellow Council Members to ensure that CME is not linked to the annual practising certificate.
However, in the Policy Meeting of the MCHK in November 2003, a motion on Named Referendum forwarded by HKDU and another motion on Opinion Survey HKMA were discussed but turned down respectively.
On behalf of Hong Kong Doctors Union, I met the Chief Executive on 23rd December 2003 to discuss on important medical issues. I risked myself in that meeting by speaking to the Chief Executive on the professions strong discontent on Mandatory CME (please refer to Page 13 of HKDU January 2004 Bulletin for details of the meeting) and we are still waiting for his reply on the matter.
The HKDU organized a forum in January 2004 and a survey among our members in February 2004 to solicit the members opinion on the matter. (Please refer to page 9 of HKDU March 2004 Bulletin for results of the survey) The results showed that members agreed on two further actions against CME linked with annual renewal of practising certificate for medical practitioners.
(a) Action I: 94.38% of 267 replies agreed on an Open Petition Letter to the MCHK to revoke the captioned measure;
(b) Action II: 73.78% of 267 replies agreed on Petition to the MCHK to revoke the captioned measure.
In order to solicit support from other professionals, your Council exchanged views with Mr. Mak Kwok Fung, Member of Legislative Council (Health Services), on Mandatory CME in February 2004 HKDU Council Meeting. Mr. Mak cautioned that we would lose if the matter went public. The nursing profession, even though with a great majority against mandatory CNE, is determined not to bring the matter up in the public but instead would prefer to discuss the issue and have it solved within their profession and with the authority.
On the other hand, we have heard members requests in HKDU Bulletins forum (February 2004 and April 2004 issues) and in other occasions that we should refrain from turning to public on this matter. The Council fully understands that we publicize the matter only if we are able to secure a win-win situation. As such, HKDU Council would shelve from turning to the public on the CME issue for the time being.
As a follow up action on my proposed agenda in July 2003, the HKMA is going to organize a forum on Mandatory CME for the whole profession on 2nd May 2004 (Sunday). Many medical bodies, including HKDU and the MCHK would be invited to the forum. I do hope that with the presence and understanding of members (including lay members) of the MCHK on our concern, we can shape our way of patriotism through CME in a more democratic manner. I would certainly reflect the majority view of our members in the forum BUT it would be better still for you to personally attend and voice your own opinion in this important event.
I wrote this message on the anniversary of the SARS outbreak. It reminds me of our first warning notice to colleagues to protect themselves by wearing masks last year. It reminds me of how the authority ignored our calls and hid the truth of SARS spreading in the community! It reminds me of the courage of our frontline colleagues in this SARS war! It reminds me of the death of our friends and members in this SARS saga! Undoubtedly Sincerity is a much more important issue than CME to our Profession! If you want me to choose between CME and Sincerity to be a Mandatory behaviour in our Profession, I would certainly opt for Sincerity. The reason is simple, a doctor without CME may not be able to provide the most appropriate care to patients but a doctor without Sincerity certainly drives patients into graveyards!
Dr. Yeung Chiu Fat Henry