Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ8: Primary dental services
Following is a question by the Hon Wong Kwok-hing and a written reply by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today
(June 9):
Question:
The Financial Secretary indicated in his Budget Speech of this year that, the
Working Group on Primary Care, chaired by the Secretary for Food and Health (SFH),
has put forward a number of proposals to strengthen primary care services, which
include proposals on enhancing primary dental services and oral health promotion
programmes, particularly those for the elderly. SFH has also indicated that
there is a plan to allocate $21 million for the enhancement of services provided
under the dental care scheme for the elderly in need. In this connection, will
the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the latest progress of the aforesaid scheme and when the details of the
scheme will be announced (including the expected number of elderly people to be
provided with the services, the scope of services and eligibility criteria of
the participants for the scheme);
(b) whether the aforesaid scheme will involve public-private partnership; if so,
of the details, and how the authorities will, in implementing the public-private
partnership scheme, monitor the fees charged by private healthcare institutions,
so as to ensure that such charges are set at reasonable levels and thereby
safeguard the interests of members of the public; and
(c) given that there have been comments that the utilisation rates of the
Elderly Health Care Voucher Pilot Scheme have been on the low side because the
age requirement set for eligible elderly recipients is too high and the amount
of subsidy is too small, hence failing to achieve the expected result, whether
the authorities will draw on the experience gained and set a lower age
requirement for eligible elderly recipients as well as a higher level of subsidy
amount when launching the aforesaid scheme, so as to benefit more elderly
people?
Reply:
President,
The Working Group on Primary Care chaired by the Secretary for Food and Health
has put forward a series of strategic proposals to enhance primary care
services, including proposals on primary dental services and oral health
promotion. The Government has earmarked $22 million in the estimates of
expenditure for 2010-11 for implementing the proposals on enhancing primary
dental services and promoting oral health, with particular consideration given
to providing appropriate dental services for the elderly in need.
The Government is working in collaboration with the dental profession, including
the Hong Kong Dental Association, to devise feasible programmes to enhance
primary dental services and promote oral health. Matters to be discussed include
identification of target groups, models of collaboration with the dental
profession and other dental service providers (e.g. public-private partnership),
subsidisation model, etc, and how to provide appropriate dental services
targeting at the elderly in need. It is expected that details of the service
programmes can be finalised and announced around end of this year.
The Government launched a three-year Elderly Health Care Voucher Pilot Scheme on
January 1, 2009 to provide five healthcare vouchers of $50 each annually to
elders aged 70 or above to partially subsidise their use of private primary care
services, including preventive care services. The vouchers can also be used for
dental services. As at May 30, 2010, a total of 229 dentists have enrolled in
this Pilot Scheme and about 11,580 attendances involve the use of vouchers to
receive dental services.
Ends/Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Issued at HKT 14:16
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