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The most hectic weekend of the College calendar has just passed. The 8th Hong Kong Primary Care Conference (HKPCC) happened on 23th and 24th June 2018. This was immediately followed by our 31st Fellowship Conferment Ceremony and the 29th Dr. Sun Yat Sen Oration.
The HKPCC was again a great success with over 500 attendees. HKPCC has become a traditional annual event hich brings together Family Physicians, nurses and other allied professionals to share our experience and exchange ideas. The Organising Committee has chosen “Family Physicians – Nexus of the New Era of Primary Care” as the theme. Nexus is the connecting and coordinating ability of the Family Doctors. We are privileged to have five-star speakers including Dr. Constance Chan, Director of Health, Hong Kong SAR; Prof. Richard Hobbs, Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford; and Prof. Samuel Wong, Professor and Head, Division of Family Medicine and Primary Healthcare, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, to deliver the three main plenary lectures.
Dr. Constance Chan’s talk is on “Partnership with Primary Care in Action against Non-communicable Diseases”. The unhealthy lifestyles of Hong Kong people filled with 50% adults that are overweight or obese, 86% with excessive salt intake, 94% with inadequate intake of fruit and vegetables, 93% with inadequate levels of physical activity, 61% with alcohol intake within the past year and 10% with daily cigarette smoking!
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She has laid down the objectives to create the right environment, increase the health literacy, strengthen health systems and to set up targets to monitor progress. The five key priority action areas fit the acronym HeALTH: Healthy Start, Alcohol Free, Live Well and Be Active, Tobacco Free and Healthy Diet. Dr. Chan has highlighted we Family Physicians are best at opportunistic screening of chronic diseases and their management. We can modify the behavioural risk factors on non-communicable diseases, motivate patients to adopt healthy lifestyles to mitigate health risks and optimise the management in primary care setting. She is spot-on!
This year the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Orator is Prof. Sophia Chan, Secretary for Food and Health, Hong Kong SAR. I am proud another member of the Chan's Family is on the spotlight. The title of her oration is “Time to change: Recommitting primary healthcare”. Hong Kong runs on a twin-track healthcare system by both public and private services. Hong Kong has the lowest infant mortality rate and the highest life expectancy in the world. By 2066, the projected life expectancy of male is 87.1 years and female is 93.1 years and it is not difficult for us to become centenarian! Despite all the success we have achieved, Prof Chan reiterates we are facing some real challenges: a rapidly ageing population with heavy burden from chronic illnesses; emergence of new communicable diseases; mounting medical costs due to advance in medical technology; increasing public expectations and health expenditure growing at a rate faster than economic growth. Our healthcare system’s sustainability is at risk as citizens continue to regard Accident & Emergency Departments as first contact point for healthcare services. That is why one of the most important healthcare reform directions is enhancement of primary care. Primary care is the first level of care at community level and positions to provide on-going care to individuals and families. Government needs to move more resources to community setting and refocus effort on prevention and on-going management of chronic conditions. The need for a comprehensive and coordinated primary healthcare in the community is loud and clear. Policy address 2017 has two major initiatives. Firstly, to set up a steering committee on primary healthcare development and secondly to set up the first District Health Centre (DHC) in Kwai Tsing District. The planned DHC will make use of local network to procure services from organisations and healthcare personnel such as nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and counselling service. Interestingly Prof. Chan’s last slide on DHC has added “Family Doctor” in the middle and satellite with multi-disciplinary healthcare team, systemic community care, medical social collaboration, technology and patient empowerment. I hope she is a woman of her word.
Dr. Angus MW CHAN
President