Message from the President, Prof. Raymond Liang, April 2010

Dear Fellows,

You may have heard already that the Hong Kong SAR Government is going to announce a more concrete plan on health care financing for further discussion later this year. The idea of compulsory medical insurance appears to be not popular and the Food and Health Bureau is currently working on a voluntary medical insurance scheme. This is certainly an important step after the many years of discussion on this topic in the Government and the community. We desperately need a good plan to move forward.

Associated with the many advances in medicine, medical costs are becoming more and more expensive and unaffordable to patients. Together with the rapid ageing of Hong Kong population, the problem is becoming more critical. There is an urgent need to make improvement to our current health care financing model which has served its purpose for many years but may become unsustainable. Action is long overdue. Being the key health care providers in the community, we Academy Fellows know best what works and what doesn’t. We should be our patients’ advocates. Please let the Government have your opinions and suggestions. If you have any good idea, please send it directly to Professor Gabriel Leung of the Food and Health Bureau or to me.

At the request of the Medical Council of Hong Kong, the Academy has produced “Guidelines on Procedural Sedation”. The document has been sent to the Medical Council and uploaded to the Academy website. It is also included in this issue of academyfocus. The Working group of our Education Committee shall organise courses with the Colleges on the competencies required to carry out these procedures. Please keep your eyes on it.

This is my first message after the Chinese New Year. I wish you all a very prosperous Year of the Tiger.

Professor Raymond Liang
President