On May 12, a powerful earthquake struck Sichuan province in the southwestern part of our Mainland China with a devastating impact on the lives and livelihood of millions of people. Together with the Association of Medical Practitioners of Societies' Clinics, your Union has immediately called for your generous help in form of donations to designated charity bank accounts through our Rapid Communication System on May 13, the day before I have to leave for the
I write this message while waiting in the Salt Lake City airport on the way back to Los Angeles before I join our Union¡¦s Celebrity Mercury Alaska Cruise at the end of May 2008. I keep an eye on the follow up events of the earthquake in the internet and as our beloved members, I share the mourning of
I don¡¦t know whether you are one of the followers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but here in Salt Lake City most of the citizens are followers of this Church and they are extremely rich. The story goes back to 1820 when Joseph Smith found this church in Boston but, labelled as evil organization, he and his followers were driven by the traditional Christians through wars from east coast to west coast of North America until they crossed the Rocky Mountains and reached the Salt Lake City in 1830 which the then Chief Priest, Brigham Young, thought that the Salt Lake (with water density second to Dead Sea in the world) was the Pacific Ocean. Under most unfavorable conditions in the dessert areas, the Church followers had to struggle for their livings including playing part in the Nation war against the Mexicans and finally built their Headquarter Temple in Salt Lake City in 1847. Thereafter, the Church followers formed their own community in Utah, starting from around 3,000 men after the war against the Mexicans. Their rewards come from their unity and determination. Their community is so close that they have their own banks like the Zion Bank, their own restaurants or fast food shops, their own building companies, their own investment agents etc. And even the State Reception Room, nicknamed the Gold Room for its lavish furnishings for important state functions, in the Utah State Capitol is only open to the Church followers and not even to the President of the
In the morning of May 10, 2008, on behalf of Hong Kong Doctors Union, I attended the Health Panel Meeting of the Legislative Council on the proposed Healthcare Reform Document, namely, Your Health, Your Life, from the Food and Health Bureau. During the meeting, I elaborated the opinion of our members from our preliminary Healthcare Reform survey results on the Subsidiary Healthcare Financing Options. I told the Legislators that our members favour User Pay policy as the first priority and as such we are demanding the Hospital Authority to raise its service fees in order to decrease the huge Price Differential between the Public and Private Medical Services as a means to damp down the Public Private Imbalance as it stands now. The second priority of our members is to encourage citizens to subscribe to Private Health and Medical Insurance by measures taken by the Government, such as Tax Exemption as our Union has suggested in 2005. I have made it clear to the Legislative Council that Mandatory Healthcare Savings and Healthcare Insurance should be the last resort and should only be considered when the HMOs are under strict control through Legislation. I reiterated that unless the running of the Medical Services are owned by the Medical Practitioners in at least 90% shares, the Medical Services will be jeopardized and patients will ultimately suffer as in the United States, the place where I am writing this message now.
The next item I pointed out in the Legislative Council is that whenever the Government wishes to implement plans of Private Public Partnership like the Tin Shui Wai North Project, the universal Electronic Health Records and the Family Doctor Register, our private doctors should be informed well beforehand and our views should be listened and respected. In other words, the public and private sectors should have equal say in such Partnership Programmes. Or else, there would be no genuine collaboration.
However, when we are united and determined to tell the public our stand and what we do wish, we should do it in a wise manner like we have done in the Link incident and in what we have done in the incident of rejecting mandatory written order for drug purchase. The ways we can accomplish our destinations is not only by determination and hardworking but also by getting acquaintance with the right persons and by convincing them with the right reasons so as to protect the health of the public in the end. Confrontation, which I never suggest, would rather do more harm than good.
See you soon in HKDU activities in Hong Kong after our Alaska Cruise!
Dr. Yeung Chiu Fat Henry
Salt Lake City, May 21