Press Releases
SFH on lead in drinking water, Prince Philip Dental Hospital and liver transplant
Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and
Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, after attending a Central and Western District "Keep
Clean 2015@Hong Kong: Our Home" Campaign event today (September 4):
Reporter: (About the progress of recruiting private laboratories for blood
testing and the University of Hong Kong receiving subsidy from Prince Philip
Dental Hospital.)
Secretary for Food and Health: Regarding blood testing for residents of the
affected public housing estates, we have contacted some private laboratories
in Hong Kong which have the capacity to take blood samples and are backed up
by overseas accredited laboratories. The liaison work and planning are in
progress.
I am very concerned about the report on the use of resources of the Prince
Philip Dental Hospital to support non-subsidised educational programmes by
the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Hong Kong, The Food and Health
Bureau is now in the progress of taking up the issue with the University of
Hong Kong to delineate clearly the resource utilisation. As I have said, the
objective of setting up the Prince Philip Dental Hospital is to support
educational programmes financed by the University Grants Committee. Any use
of resources of the Prince Philip Dental Hospital to support self-financing
programmes must be clearly accounted for.
Reporter: (About the patient waiting for liver transplant.)
Secretary for Food and Health: I am very concerned about the patient who is
now waiting for liver transplant in order to sustain life. In fact, when you
talk about Hong Kong as a whole, there would be up to 3 000 patients at any
time waiting for organ transplant. For cases involving liver, heart and lung
transplant, the thing which is of more concern is that these kinds of
patients cannot wait for long. For kidney patients, there are dialysis
programmes to sustain them, so that they can wait a little bit longer. But
for patents waiting for liver, heart and lung transplant, they could not
wait for long. So, I would appeal to Hong Kong citizens to support organ
donation in general.
(Please also refer to the
Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Friday, September 4, 2015
Issued at HKT 15:08
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