Remarks by S for Health at media session on tele-medicine and tobacco control
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Following are the remarks made by the Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, at a media session after going to a radio program today (August 23):
Press reporter: Regarding the Consumer Council’s report on tele-health, is the present system in managing medical personnel enough in regards to securing clients looking for such services and what should clients likewise understand? With the growth of guideline towards more public locations on cigarette smoking that would begin tomorrow, what does the federal government hope to attain and what is anticipated in the next phase?
Secretary for Health: Regarding the Consumer Council’s report on tele-medicine, tele-medicine includes not just patient assessment however likewise interaction in between expert bodies and likewise education training etc. Concentrating on the problem of clients’ assessment through electronic media or perhaps online, I wish to highlight the value of the quality and security in health care services. Tele-medicine is medication, and a tele-consultation is a medical assessment. I would like to advise our residents that when they have a health concern and desire to look for health care suggestions, they ought to guarantee that whether they see the physician personally in individual or through electronic media, they have to guarantee that the individual worried is a certified authorized professional, whether is a Western medication physician or a Chinese medication specialist. In Hong Kong, we have steps and legislations that control the arrangement of health care services; and pertinent expert bodies and councils have actually currently released standards to make sure that the practice of medication through electronic methods will follow the standards and make sure that client security and quality will be secured.
About tobacco control, we have actually put in the expense to Legislative Council for changing the tobacco control regulation and we are going to have the 2nd and 3rd reading in September. We are positive that we will have the assistance from the Legislative Council. The entire workout of the change in fact began practically 2 years earlier in 2023 when we began the general public assessment and we had frustrating assistance from the entire city. Over 90 percent of the participants supported more procedures to manage and lower our cigarette smoking rate, so regarding make sure the health of our people. Over the last 2 years, we have actually likewise heard the viewpoint from numerous stakeholders and made proper changes, in order to guarantee that all these steps will be securely and successfully carried out. The more crucial thing has to do with flavoured tobacco items — we will begin with the non-mint flavoured tobacco, and we will put in all these steps in a prompt way.
(Please likewise describe the Chinese part of the records.)