Giuseppe
Emeritus
Re: Hong Kong PRC SAR: Pandemic Influenza H1N1 2009, Situation Updates (Since Sep. 26, 2009)
Re: Hong Kong PRC SAR: Pandemic Influenza H1N1 2009, Situation Updates (Since Sep. 26, 2009)
Hong Kong: SFH on flu vaccination (11/14/09)
Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session after attending a radio programme today (November 14):
Reporter:
There are concerns that people may not be very keen to get vaccines...... and million dollar of public money will be wasted. How would you address this concerns?
Secretary for Food and Health:
In fact, we have talked to the private sector and it is going to provide certain services for the elderly as well as for the patients with chronic illness. The idea is try to have as much subsidy from the Government as possible and that is the reason why we are subsidising both the vaccines as well as the $ 50 vaccination fees so that most of them do not need to charge or do not need to charge any much extra. That is the rationale. Of course, I have to appeal to the private doctors that they should take into the benefit of the community and also the importance of wider coverage of the vaccines rather than making use of that as a means of making extra money. Although I know that some of the clinics may have a slightly higher overhead compared with others, I think this is an important campaign and also an exercise to protect our community. I think they should consider not charging extra on the patients.
Reporter:
Are you worried that they may choose not to get the vaccines......?
Secretary for Food and Health:
I think people would choose to go to have vaccines particularly if they think they belong to the high-risk group. Whether there will be a big turnout or a low turnout will very much depend on the problem or the situation in December, because if we have a flu season coming early, then more people will of course go to have vaccination in December but if the flu season comes late, for example in February or March as usual, then we may not see the enthusiasm as early as December. But we would do as much as we can in terms of publicity and promotion.
Reporter:
Medical services may have to be suspended when the vaccination programme commence......
Secretary for Food and Health:
We will definitely deploy people in order to implement such a big exercise on vaccination and just like what happened last year when we dealt with the melamine incident, certain services may be suspended temporarily or may be postponed but the principle is not to affect those essential services and also those services affect people who are very sick.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)
-
View Original Article
Re: Hong Kong PRC SAR: Pandemic Influenza H1N1 2009, Situation Updates (Since Sep. 26, 2009)
Hong Kong: SFH on flu vaccination (11/14/09)
Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, at a stand-up media session after attending a radio programme today (November 14):
Reporter:
There are concerns that people may not be very keen to get vaccines...... and million dollar of public money will be wasted. How would you address this concerns?
Secretary for Food and Health:
In fact, we have talked to the private sector and it is going to provide certain services for the elderly as well as for the patients with chronic illness. The idea is try to have as much subsidy from the Government as possible and that is the reason why we are subsidising both the vaccines as well as the $ 50 vaccination fees so that most of them do not need to charge or do not need to charge any much extra. That is the rationale. Of course, I have to appeal to the private doctors that they should take into the benefit of the community and also the importance of wider coverage of the vaccines rather than making use of that as a means of making extra money. Although I know that some of the clinics may have a slightly higher overhead compared with others, I think this is an important campaign and also an exercise to protect our community. I think they should consider not charging extra on the patients.
Reporter:
Are you worried that they may choose not to get the vaccines......?
Secretary for Food and Health:
I think people would choose to go to have vaccines particularly if they think they belong to the high-risk group. Whether there will be a big turnout or a low turnout will very much depend on the problem or the situation in December, because if we have a flu season coming early, then more people will of course go to have vaccination in December but if the flu season comes late, for example in February or March as usual, then we may not see the enthusiasm as early as December. But we would do as much as we can in terms of publicity and promotion.
Reporter:
Medical services may have to be suspended when the vaccination programme commence......
Secretary for Food and Health:
We will definitely deploy people in order to implement such a big exercise on vaccination and just like what happened last year when we dealt with the melamine incident, certain services may be suspended temporarily or may be postponed but the principle is not to affect those essential services and also those services affect people who are very sick.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)
-
View Original Article