I wrote this message on board the plane after our 6 days tour to Hailouzoh and Mt. Emei. (Please refer to Pages xx of this Bulletin) During the trip, I have had first hand experience on how life is so brittle even for an experienced traveler with regular exercise. I even learned the Sichuan opera art of Bian Lian (¡§Face-Changing¡¨) within 6 days of my journey there. During the "learning period", the color of my lips just changed each day from red, to earth red, gray, darkish, orange and red again with the corresponding changes in texture of my skin elsewhere.
The above is just a synopsis of my syndrome complex of gastroenteritis plus Acute Mountain Sickness (even after prophylactic diamox) that I have never encountered before. The sensation of tingling of skin from top to bottom in the beginning ended up with numbness and later on without feeling at all. My normal talking tone gradually changed to middle, low, lowest .... tone and my mindset of even not recognizing who was "Henry Yeung" in the end that made me change my mind NOT to walk any more with "someone¡¦s" floppy legs and to HOLD tight on to the oxygen cylinder. This happened at 1:00 pm on 18.2.2007 at
However, the scenery is marvelous especially in Mt. Emei and I am lucky NOT to miss every part of the trip including jumping into a 40 degree Celsius open-air hot spring with the surrounding temp of around -3 degree Celsius and playing fire-crackers in Hailouzoh.
When I stepped onto the plane at Chengdu, I felt relaxed and had the feeling at home even before the plane departed from the airport. So Hong Kong surely is my home and the home of many of you. We shall do our best to make it a better home.
The meeting with one of the CE candidates, Mr. Donald Tsang, on 10.2.2007 at his Campaign Office was, I thought, a usual one and which I would not expect too much after the experience of several meetings with the CE before on behalf of the Union. However, some of the ¡§discussions¡¨ during the meeting were released to the press which created criticism on Mr. Tsang was unfair to him since the subject matter was never mentioned during the meeting and the fact that it was not mentioned by the Election Committee Members after the meeting either. This is just a ¡§well planned¡¨ misinterpretation by some political parties the intention of which is totally disgusting.
Actually the meeting covered most of the time on Health Care Reform of which Tsang said that it would be his second priority next to old age problem if he to be elected. Tsang mentioned problems of increased medical cost due to foreseeable increase cost of advanced medical technology and increase elderly population. He proposed to increase the portion of Public Expenditure for Public Health Care from 15 to 17% as stated in his campaign pamphlet. That would mean an increase up to HK$ 40 Billion for the public health services. I asked him how is he going to squeeze the extra 2% from other expenditures to cover the proposed increment since he advocated increase resources for the elderly and education as well. Unluckily his answer is he does not know. However, he suggested Legislation of Compulsory Health Saving Account, as in
The second important issue that he would like to see in Health Care Reform is to outsource appropriate Public Health Care services to the private sector so as to give more flexibility to the health care system in Hong Kong in an attempt to salvage the severe Public Private Imbalance. I immediately challenged him with the message that I wrote in the Feb 2007 HKDU Bulletin on the issue of ¡§Government HMO¡¨ which does no good to the profession and to the citizens either. I questioned him on the sincerity of HA in purchasing Health services from the private sector. I challenged him if that was the case, why on earth the Government does not form an
I further produced to him a Petition Advertisement supported by the Union and the Associations of Pharmacists printed in Ming Pao on 9.2.2007 on HA formulary (please refer to page xx of this Bulletin) and told him that by such measure, HA would be going to the wrong direction and would become a bigger empire of its own.
In fact, we have written to the HA on 26th April 2005 and again on 1st June 2006 stating our opinion that for the drugs proven to be of significant benefits but extremely expensive for the Hospital Authority and which have not been included in the Drug Formulary, they should be provided by the Hospital Authority to all patients regardless of their financial circumstances. As for less expensive and commonly used drugs, we propose that all patients should pay by themselves as far as possible, provided there is a well-constructed safety net. This is exactly in accordance with what Tsang suggested Self Responsibility on Health Costs for those who can afford. And for drugs to be purchased by patients at their own expense, Hong Kong Doctors Union is of the stand that such patients should purchase these drugs from community pharmacies and NOT inside HA. Otherwise, patients will be enticed to stay and stay captured in this intricate maze of HA¡¦s network. The result is public patients may never leave to become private patients impeding further the aims of public-private interface to ease HA's patient load.
However, on 23rd Jan 2007, a non-binding motion of ¡§Hospital Authority should directly supply all self-financed item drugs to patients of public hospital¡¨Mode of supply of self-financed item drugs in public hospitals was passed by 3 vs 1 out of 14 members at the LegCo Health Panel Meeting neglecting the views from HKDU, other medical and pharmacists¡¦ associations. That is the reason why we joined in the advertisement in Ming Pao to protest against such a ¡§Big Government, Small Market¡¨ action which is contradictory to what the Government of Hong Kong has promised.
At this point of time (8:00pm on 23rd Feb 2007), our Union had met with Ms. Audrey Eu, representatives of patients¡¦ groups and pharmacists¡¦ associations to convince them of our stand (please refer to page xx of this Bulletin) since a meeting between the CE of HA and Pharmacists is arranged on 1st March 2007 to revisit the issue. I hope by doing so we can revert the situation before late. I shall do my best.
Wishes you all good luck and good health in the year of the Golden Pig!
Dr. Yeung Chiu Fat Henry