Since its establishment in 1977, the Hong Kong College of Family Physicians (HKCFP) has come a long way. In the recent March issue of the Hong Kong Practitioner, the College’s official journal, Dr. Stephen Foo has written an editorial entitled, “Family medicine, cross road – where are we?” Dr. Foo is a Censor and a Past President of our College. He shared his experience in Collegial work and highlighted some of the primary care and family medicine training developments over the years, as well as reiterating the importance of continuing medical education and continuing professional development for practising doctors. Last but not least, he gave the readers some food for thought in terms of where the primary healthcare standard should be heading.

Family doctors have an important role in the management of elderly in Residential Care Homes for the Elderly (RCHEs) and are one of the essential healthcare professionals to attend to their End-of-Life care need. The HKCFP is collaborating with the Hong Kong Association of Gerontology (HKAG) in a Certificate Course for Family Physicians on End-of- Life care for RCHEs in the near future. It will be held via an online platform in two Saturday afternoons on 24 April and 8 May 2021. This certificate course aims at preparing family doctors working in RCHEs and community settings in the provision of Palliative and End-of-Life care and medical management for older persons at the last stage of life, as well as providing an update on the development of Advance Care Planning and Advance Directives. Experts with clinical experience in Palliative and End-of-Life care for the elderly have been invited to share their expertise and experience with the course participants. For details of enrollment, please refer to the information in the relevant College announcements.

Regarding the packaging defects of the vial caps of the BioNTech vaccine (batch 210102), the Government took note of the investigation results and announced the resumption of Comirnaty vaccinations on reception of the new batches of the BioNTech vaccine with effect from 5 April 2021 (https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202104/01/P2021040100848.htm). At the time of writing, just over half a million of our local population have been given COVID vaccinations in total, including counts from both the locally available vaccines thus far, i.e. CoronaVac and Comirnaty, which could said to imply a lukewarm response to the call for population vaccination against COVID-19. In order to bring this COVID-19 pandemic to an end, the world, or at least a large majority of it, needs to be immune to the virus. Overall, vaccines are a relatively safe means that the human population has relied on in many previous occasions to bring down the morbidity and mortality of infectious diseases over the years. Therefore, we should keep up the good work as frontline doctors to provide support to COVID-19 vaccinations. Hopefully, when more people have received the vaccinations, the community would be able to return to normality, gradually but surely.

As the pandemic has been ongoing for over a year, the psychological impact on people is mounting, especially among the elderly. Our College has been invited by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Disaster Preparedness and Response Institute (HKJCDPRI) to provide sharing sessions on managing psychological distress and common mental health issues recently, thanks to Dr. Ho Ka Ming, Ken and Dr. Wan Kwong Yu, Inness for representing our College. In addition, we have also been invited by the Hong Kong Kidney Foundation and the Hong Kong Society of Nephrology to share our views on the topic of “Challenges on management of diabetes mellitus and diabetic kidney disease in primary care setting” in their Webinars series Diabetes and Chronic Renal Disease in March, many thanks to Dr. Li Yim Chu for representing us as a speaker of the session and Dr. Fung Hoi Tik as a moderator for the seminars.

The Medical Education Conference 2021 (MEC 2021) is an annual educational event organised by the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine (HKAM) (https://online.hkam.org.hk/mec2021/). This year, the Conference will be held on 22 May 2021 (Saturday) at the HKAM Building. Delegates can elect to attend via the online platform or attend in person. The theme of MEC 2021 is “E-learning and Assessment in the New Normal”, focusing on exploration of new learning and assessment approaches in competency-based training, e-learning and workplace-based assessment. In addition, there will be special symposia on “Professional Training and Assessment during the COVID-19 Pandemic” and on young Fellows and trainees engagement. We would like to thank the organiser for offering a limited number of free enrollments to our members and the relevant announcement would be sent out by our secretariat in due course.

Please keep well and stay safe!