Month: March 2025

Source: Assainir, relancer et développer ensemble : les orientations du 18e gouvernement

The Health Bureau today announced that the Chronic Disease Co-Care (CDCC) Pilot Scheme will be expanded to provide blood lipid testing starting from March 28.

The scope of screening under the CDCC Pilot Scheme will be expanded to include blood lipid testing in addition to diabetes mellitus and hypertension screening, thereby achieving full coverage of the “three highs”. A plan to expand the pilot scheme was outlined in the Chief Executive’s 2024 Policy Address.

The eligibility criteria for the scheme remain unchanged: eligible individuals are Hong Kong residents aged 45 or above with no known medical history of diabetes mellitus or hypertension.

Government subsidies for consultations, and a co-payment amount to be paid by participants, will remain at the current level.

If participants are diagnosed with hyperlipidaemia, they are entitled to a maximum of four subsidised consultations in the first year, and a maximum of two annually from the second year onwards.

The Primary Healthcare Commission will expand the scheme to designated General Out-patient Clinics under the Hospital Authority in three phases, in order to provide preventive screening for underprivileged patients. Blood lipid testing will be covered.

Additionally, podiatry services provided by dedicated nurse clinics and allied health services under the pilot scheme will be enhanced starting from April 15.

Separately, starting from April 15, more than 20 additional service points will be introduced across the city to provide dedicated nurse clinic and allied health services to eligible District Health Centre/Express (DHC/DHCE) members who have not participated in the CDCC Pilot Scheme.

The dedicated nurse clinics will provide initial assessments relating to osteoarthritis in the knees and back, muscle and joint function, basic self-management, and diet. They will also provide checks on common women’s health issues.

The allied health services will be provided by occupational therapists, Chinese medicine practitioners, physiotherapists, speech therapists and dietitians.

The co-payment model will be adopted for DHC/DHCE members receiving dedicated nurse clinic and allied health services.

The pilot scheme has received a positive response since its launch, with over 100,000 participants having joined the programme to date. As of March 12, about 62,700 participants had completed screenings. Around 24,200 of those were diagnosed with prediabetes, diabetes mellitus or hypertension and have entered treatment.

Source: Assainir, relancer et développer ensemble : les orientations du 18e gouvernement

The Health Bureau today said at the present stage, the Government has no plan to use the King’s Park site for purposes other than for healthcare after the relocation of services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) due to start from early 2026.

It added that the Government will consider the site’s future healthcare use and development plan in the course of reviewing the Second Hospital Development Plan (HDP).

In response to media enquiries on the QEH service relocation and the future use of the King’s Park site, the bureau said to dovetail with the implementation of the First HDP of the Hospital Authority (HA), the QEH services will be relocated to New Acute Hospital (NAH) at Kai Tak Development Area gradually from early 2026.

By then, most of QEH’s clinical services, including the accident and emergency services, will be relocated to NAH; while the QEH Ambulatory Care Centre (Extension) will remain at the King’s Park site.

Located in Central Kowloon, NAH will form a service network with a number of hospitals and the Ambulatory Care Centre (Extension) at QEH to provide comprehensive healthcare services to the residents in the community.

The other hospitals involved in the new service network are: Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital, Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital and Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Wong Tai Sin Hospital in Kowloon City District, and Kwong Wah Hospital, Kowloon Hospital and other hospitals in the Kowloon Central Cluster.

The bureau noted that the HA has been maintaining close liaison with the Transport Department and other relevant departments about the various support to be provided for NAH.

On public transport services, the TD will plan in advance the provision of appropriate public transport services taking into consideration the NAH project’s progress and anticipated completion date.

The TD will also continue to closely monitor the area’s development, and adjust or strengthen the local public transport services based on actual circumstances, in order to further enhance the road traffic network in the NAH’s vicinity to meet passenger needs.

Furthermore, the bureau is reviewing the Second HDP together with the HA, and there will be room for healthcare service development at the King’s Park site after the relocation of clinical services from QEH to NAH.

Given the convenient geographical location, it will be a feasible option to consider the expansion of the ambulatory care services at the King’s Park site based on the demand of the population in Kowloon, it added.

Source: Assainir, relancer et développer ensemble : les orientations du 18e gouvernement

A bill allowing patients to accept physiotherapy and occupational therapy without a doctor’s referral under specified circumstances and enabling allied health professionals to accept referrals from Chinese medicine practitioners will be published in the Gazette on March 21.

Announcing the move today, the Government said the Medical Professions (Amendment) Bill 2025 is scheduled for the first reading at the Legislative Council on March 26 following its gazettal.

Noting that “supplementary medical professions” has been used for over 40 years since the enactment of the Supplementary Medical Professions Ordinance in 1980, the Government said the bill will rename the term as “allied health professions” in view of the increasingly important and specialised roles of five professions in Hong Kong’s healthcare system.

To address the challenges to the healthcare system posed by an ageing population and the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, the Government also encouraged citizens to seek early medical intervention for common illnesses, noting that allowing patients to access physiotherapy and occupational therapy direct is one of the key elements.

The bill sets out three circumstances under which patients may seek these therapy services directly without a doctor’s referral.

People may seek services directly from physiotherapists (PTs) and occupational therapists (OTs) for health conditions covered by recognised clinical protocols, and the PTs and OTs must adhere to the recognised clinical protocols at all times.

Patients may also seek direct physiotherapy or occupational therapy services for health conditions diagnosed by a registered doctor or Chinese medicine practitioners (CMP) within the past 12 months without obtaining a new referral letter each time.

Alternatively, PTs and OTs may provide direct services to patients without a doctor’s referral in emergency or other situations and community services approved by the Medical Professions Council, which will be renamed as the Allied Health Professions Council. Details of the designated situations will be set out in the two professional codes of practice issued by the council.

To further Chinese medicine as a constituent part of the healthcare system, the bill provides a legal framework for allied health professionals to accept referrals from CMPs under suitable conditions.

The Chinese medicine profession and allied health professions must reach a consensus on professional standards regarding knowledge, skills, professional competencies and conduct to formulate implementation details and update the relevant codes of practice.

In view of the practical clinical and operational needs of the Chinese Medicine Hospital of Hong Kong, the bill also allows relevant allied health professionals to accept referrals from CMPs within the hospital, supporting its phased commencement of services from the end of this year.

Additionally, a new limited registration pathway is proposed to admit qualified non-locally trained allied health professionals to practise in designated institutions within their specialised fields on the premise of not compromising professional standards.

Applications will be subject to approval by the Allied Health Professions Council. The designated institutions include Department of Health, Hospital Authority, Primary Healthcare Commission, Chinese Medicine Hospital and institutions offering allied health profession training programmes.

The council may impose conditions on an applicant’s practice to confine them to a specific scope of practice. Allied health professionals under limited registration will not be eligible for migration to full registration.

Meanwhile, the Government has proposed a new temporary registration pathway to enable non-locally trained allied health professionals to come to Hong Kong for academic exchanges and clinical demonstrations. A temporary registration will be valid for no more than 14 days and is not renewable.

The bill’s other amendments include the introduction of continuing professional development as a mandatory requirement for allied health professionals and changes to the composition and structure of the aforesaid council and its five constituent boards to better regulate the professions and promote cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Also included are technical amendments, such as extending the validity of the existing practising certificates to three years and adjusting various fees under the Supplementary Medical Professions Ordinance.

Source: Assainir, relancer et développer ensemble : les orientations du 18e gouvernement

The Government today announced that the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (Amendment) Bill 2025, which seeks to refine the legal framework around the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHealth), will be published on Friday.

The bill proposes to amend the existing Electronic Health Record Sharing System Ordinance by enhancing the mechanism for data collection, sharing, usage and protection, in tandem with the Government’s “eHealth+” five-year development plan.

The bill will provide a legal framework for establishing a comprehensive personal electronic health record (eHR) for citizens. This includes streamlining the consent mechanism.

The Secretary for Health will be empowered to require specified healthcare providers (HCPs) to deposit specified health data into personal eHealth accounts. These arrangements will make it easier for citizens to obtain their records from HCPs and enhance service efficiency.

To support the development of primary healthcare services provided by multi-disciplinary teams, the bill will expand the categories of healthcare professionals (HCProfs) who, with citizens’ consent, can access their health data on eHealth.

In addition to the existing 13 types of HCProfs subject to statutory registration, HCProfs registered with professional bodies under the Department of Health’s Accredited Registers Scheme for Healthcare Professions, and other specified HCProfs who provide healthcare in facilities controlled or managed by the Government and the Hospital Authority, will also be included.

The Government emphasised that compared to using paper documents, electronic medical documents are more convenient and less likely to get lost.

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The bill will provide a clear legal framework with respect to electronic medical documents issued or authenticated through eHealth. This includes enabling the Government to designate eHealth as the only platform for the issuance of certain medical documents where appropriate.

To support citizens, the bill also includes provisions on the recognition of individual HCPs and public health record systems outside of Hong Kong, subject to data privacy and system security protections, and in compliance with specified requirements and conditions.

HCPs outside of Hong Kong will only be able access eHealth records when a registered citizen provides explicit consent for this to happen. Under no other circumstances will eHealth records be transmitted across the boundary.

In addition, the bill will specify that certain relations of citizens, including parents of minors, as well as authorised caregivers, may provide and obtain eHealth records on a citizen’s behalf.

The bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council for a first reading on March 26.

Source: Assainir, relancer et développer ensemble : les orientations du 18e gouvernement

The overall Comprehensive Social Security Assistance caseload rose by 188 cases to 195,775 in February, up 0.1% from January, the Social Welfare Department announced today.

The total number of recipients was 262,513.

Low-earnings cases fell by 1.1% month on month to 1,354 cases. Single parent cases dropped 0.3% to 19,025 cases. Permanent disability cases declined 0.1% to 16,704 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of old age cases rose 0.2% to 110,943. Unemployment cases increased by 0.1% to 16,069 cases, while ill-health cases remained steady at 27,762 cases.

Source: Assainir, relancer et développer ensemble : les orientations du 18e gouvernement

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate edged up  0.1 percentage point from November 2024 to January 2025 to 3.2% for the December 2024 to February 2025 period, the Census & Statistics Department announced today.

The underemployment rate remained at 1.1%.

Total employment was 3,709,500, down 7,100 from November 2024 to January 2025, while the labour force also dropped 5,400 to 3,821,300.

The number of unemployed people increased from 110,100 to 111,700. Meanwhile, the number of underemployed people decreased from 43,000 to 40,700.

Secretary for Labour & Welfare Chris Sun said the labour market should remain largely stable in the near term, although some businesses would be affected by the uncertainties stemming from US trade protection measures.

Source: Assainir, relancer et développer ensemble : les orientations du 18e gouvernement

The Centre for Health Protection today said it is investigating a cluster of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) symptoms among six secondary students who participated in an exchange tour to Xiamen last week.

The latest cluster involves 36 teachers and students from a Kwun Tong secondary school, who joined a Xiamen exchange tour between March 13 and 15.

On the second night of the tour, six students developed AGE symptoms – vomiting, diarrhoea and fever, from about 9pm to about 7am the next day. Five of them sought medical attention in Xiamen, and none required hospitalisation.

Preliminary epidemiological investigations revealed that all six students had not consumed any common food items other than the group meals, and had no other common exposure history in Hong Kong prior to their departure.

Hence, at this stage, the centre could not rule out the possibility that the cases were infected by consuming contaminated food.

It has notified the Mainland health authority of the epidemiological investigations and information about the restaurants concerned, in addition to collecting stool specimens from the patients for laboratory testing and notifying the Education Bureau of its assessment of the new cases.

The centre also gave an update of the three clusters of students participating in exchange tours to Shaoguan who developed gastroenteritis symptoms earlier.

Its follow-up investigation found that three more students developed gastroenteritis symptoms on March 7 and 9 respectively, bringing the total number of affected people to 55 teachers and students.

Among them, 16 have sought medical attention, and three have tested positive for norovirus. The centre will continue to work closely with the Guangdong authority and take necessary follow-up action.

In view of the recent high activity of norovirus, the centre has issued a letter to all schools in Hong Kong to provide health advice on the transmission, prevention and infection control of AGE.

It also organised an online meeting for the bureau and the exchange tours service contractors last week to provide health advice on the prevention of communicable diseases and food safety during trips.

Apart from the Mainland, there have been recent outbreaks of AGE in other popular travel destinations for Hong Kong citizens, such as Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan.

The centre reminds members of the public to remain vigilant and maintain personal, environmental and food hygiene at all times to minimise the risk of being infected while travelling.

Visit the centre’s website for information on viral gastroenteritis.

Source: Assainir, relancer et développer ensemble : les orientations du 18e gouvernement

The Government announced that the Task Group on New Medical School has received a total of three proposals for the establishment of the third medical school by today’s deadline for submissions.

The proposals were submitted by Hong Kong Baptist University, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.

The task group will proceed to the next stage of work to evaluate the proposals according to the devised parameters, having agreed to adopt a holistic and comprehensive approach for evaluating the proposals submitted by universities from various perspectives.

This is in accordance with 10 key parameters, including innovative strategic positioning, curriculum structure and assessment methodologies, and financial sustainability.

Expert advisers and other group members will conduct an in-depth evaluation of the proposals in their areas of expertise. The task group plans to conduct interviews within the second quarter of this year with the universities concerned to gain a better understanding of their proposals for making a consolidated consideration.

The task group is expected to complete the evaluation and recommend to the Government within this year a proposal that could nurture more talented medical practitioners in support of the high quality development of the local healthcare service system, while aligning with the development of Hong Kong into an international medical training, research and innovation hub.

Source: Assainir, relancer et développer ensemble : les orientations du 18e gouvernement

The Labour Importation Scheme for the Transport Sector – Aviation Industry will be open for a third round of applications from tomorrow.

As with the first two rounds, importation of labour is allowed for the 10 frontline non-supervisory job types facing the most acute manpower shortage.

They cover passenger services officers, ramp services agents, cabin workers, aircraft maintenance mechanics/technicians, tractor drivers, warehouse operators/cargo handlers, equipment/loader operators, customer services agents, aircraft tug drivers and maintenance technicians.

Applicants must be registered business entities which possess a contract, licence, franchise or passenger handling permit with the Airport Authority to operate their business at Hong Kong International Airport.

They must also pay the authority $400 per month for each worker imported, while the authority will contribute an annual lump sum of the same magnitude as the total amount paid by applicants, for subsidising the transport costs of the local frontline staff responsible for the airport’s operation.

The relevant transport subsidies have been disbursed to the staff since last May.

Applicants shall submit the completed application form together with other required documents to the authority between March 18 and 31.

The approval process will be completed approximately two weeks after the application period ends.

Around 4,100 quotas have been approved after two rounds of applications, while around 4,000 imported workers have arrived in Hong Kong.

For enquiries, call the authority at 2188 6603.

Click here for more details.

Source: Assainir, relancer et développer ensemble : les orientations du 18e gouvernement

The Labour Department today announced that the Tuen Mun Job Centre will merge with the Yuen Long Job Centre starting April 1. Upon merging, the job centre at G/F, Victory Building, 3 Tsing Min Path, Tuen Mun will be renamed as the New Territories West Job Centre.

Apart from services provided by job centres, the department’s iES website and the iES mobile application provide round-the-clock online employment services and employment information.

Jobseekers and employers can also call 2969 0888 and 2503 3377 to access services.