Family doctors helping patients to navigate the appropriate healthcare pathways

David VK Chao 周偉強

HK Pract 2024;46:76-77

This issue of the Hong Kong Practitioner is filled with a wide spectrum of useful clinical information. We are very grateful towards Professor Wilfred Peh who has very kindly helped to share with us on a series of interpretation of various regional radiographs, and this time, it is the spine. Prof. Peh has provided a practical and systematic guide on reviewing the indications for spine radiography, approach to interpreting these radiographs, and highlighting the appearances of some common lesions and incidentalomas. And the article is well illustrated with clinical radiographs throughout. We have also got Dr. Jacqueline Chan who showed us the otorhinolaryngologist’s approach in managing head and neck basal cell carcinoma. Basal cell carcinoma is the commonest non-melanotic skin cancer in Hong Kong. Dr. Chan took us through the diagnosis pathways and discussed the various means of treatment, including MOHS micrographic surgery, staged excision and reconstruction, topical therapy and radiation, and most important of all patient selection for the various modalities.

The Hong Kong Primary Care Conference 2024 organised by our College had taken place earlier this year, in July to be exact. It was well attended by delegates from local and overseas. We have the great privilege and honour to have our four plenary speakers all agreeing to share with us their plenaries in this issue of our journal, including Dr. Lam Ching-choi, Professor Cindy Lam, Professor Samuel Wong, and Dr. Rodger Charlton from the United Kingdom. First off the line, Dr. Lam Ching-choi, Non-official Member, Executive Council, HKSAR, shared with us on the topic of “Medical social collaboration” which is one of the hot topics in the Primary Healthcare Blueprint issued by the Government in 2022. Dr. Lam walked us through the historical background of development of medical social collaboration in Hong Kong, the need for a paradigm shift in the local healthcare reform from a treatment oriented and hospital based system to a prevention centred and community based system, and the mobilisation and integration of primary healthcare workers both in the private and the public sectors.

Professor Cindy Lam, Emeritus Professor in Family Medicine, Department of Primary Care, University of Hong Kong demonstrated the importance of Family Medicine in helping the patients in the community to steer through the complicated network of healthcare services available to the public in her plenary entitled, “Family medicine: connecting the right services at the right time to the right person”. Prof. Lam pointed out that there is a need for a new form of primary care in Hong Kong that embraces enhancements in structure, process and outcome of healthcare delivery, and from multidisciplinary care to integrated care. Family medicine is the key discipline connecting the appropriate services to the right people at the right time in the community. And everyone needs a family doctor who acts as his/her healthcare partner throughout the different stages in life.

Next up is Professor Samuel Wong, Professor and Director, Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Prof Wong delivered his plenary on the topic of “Community mental health in family medicine”, in which he reiterated the importance of community mental health, the importance of community partnerships, potential models of mental healthcare and strategies for effective collaboration, challenges and future directions. He concluded that common mental health problems are prevalent in the community and with right support, family doctors can play a leading role in detecting and managing patients with common mental disorders.

Last but not least, Professor Rodger Charlton, Professor of Undergraduate Primary Care Education, Leicester Medical School, the University of Leicester, United Kingdom, shared with us on how primary care can coordinate end of life care in the United Kingdom. Prof Charlton reiterated the importance of having family doctors in providing end of life care to patients in the community because family doctors are well adept to providing continuity of care and anticipatory care as the needs arise during end of life care.

Hope you have a great time reading the journal!