In support of the World Family Doctor Day 2024, the Health Bureau of Hong Kong SAR and the Hong Kong College of Family Physicians (HKCFP) jointly held the World Family Doctor Day Symposium on 18 May 2024 to share and discuss with healthcare professionals the ways of enlisting concerted efforts to promote family doctors led primary healthcare services to support citizens in improving their well-being.  The Symposium brought together over a hundred representatives from different medical specialities. Speakers at the Symposium included the Secretary of Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau; the Under Secretary of Health, Dr. Libby Lee; the Dean of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong, Professor Lau Chak-sing; Assistant Commissioner for Primary Healthcare, Primary Healthcare Office of the Health Bureau, Dr. Tony Ha; the Director of the Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Samuel Wong;  the Commissioner of Primary Healthcare, Dr. Pang Fei-chau; and myself as the President of the HKCFP. 

On 19 May 2024, HKCFP issued a Press Release on World Family Doctor Day 2024: Healthy Planet, Healthy People, A Call to Action for Healthier Communities in Hong Kong. The details of the Press Release are available at here.

In addition, an article written by HKCFP representative Dr. Ken Ho was published in a local newspaper Hong Kong Economic Journal to highlight this year’s WFDD theme. The article is available at HKCFP Facebook Fan page at here.

Dr. Maria Leung and I attended the live Radio Programme ‘Healthpedia’ of Radio Television Hong Kong on 17 May 2024, Friday, to promote the WFDD and the Role of Family Doctor. The programme can be reviewed at here.

In a bid to provide updated information on the disease patterns and changes in primary care morbidity in Hong Kong, a prospective practice-based survey organised by the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care of the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong College of Family Physicians supported by the University Grants Council Research Matching Grants Scheme and the Hong Kong College of Family Physicians has been conducted from March 2021 to February 2022. Despite the study was conducted during the time when COVID-19 was still affecting Hong Kong, a total of 49 practising primary care doctors contributing 172 doctor-weeks resulting in 40,984 health problems based on 26,897 patient encounters have been obtained by the research team for analysis. In the survey, the authors revealed that the most frequently recorded diagnoses were hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, vaccination, non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus and upper respiratory tract infections. The systems with the most frequently presenting complaints were endocrine/metabolic and cardiovascular systems. When compared with the previous similar survey conducted in 2007-08, there has been a notable rise in the percentages of chronic conditions from 35.6% to 46.7%, psychological problems from 2.6% to 2.8%, and preventive care from 3.1% to 9.2%, with a high proportion of these encounters being COVID-19 vaccinations. This study enables us to have an overview on the breadth of primary care morbidity in Hong Kong despite the COVID-19 outbreak and demonstrates that the burdens of chronic diseases, mental health and preventive care are showing a rising trend. Therefore, a family-doctor led model of primary care with an integrated system approach with dedicated resources are urgently required to better support primary care doctors in providing quality care for patients in the community. For more details, please refer to the original article entitled “Hong Kong Primary Care Morbidity Survey 2021-2022” in the June issue of the Hong Kong Practitioner.