The Primary Healthcare Committee (PHC) is responsible for advising the PHC Commission with a view to assisting the PHC Commission in carrying out its functions and exercising its powers in an effective and efficient manner. (please click) The Committee comprises ex-officio members and non-official members. People from different professional backgrounds have been invited to join the committee as non-official members, including professionals from family medicine, Chinese medicine, dentistry and other professional sectors. The family doctors involved in the PHC Committee are Dr. Donald Li Kwok-tung, Professor Samuel Wong Yeung-shan, Dr. Lam Wing-wo, Dr. Tse Sut-yee and myself. The full list of membership can be found via the above web link.

The first meeting of the PHC Committee took place in August, chaired by Dr. Pang Fei-chau, the Commissioner for Primary Healthcare. During the meeting, Dr. Pang briefed members on the future work focuses of the PHC Commission, followed by a discussion about the governance structure of the PHC Commission. Several working groups would be formed to facilitate the enhancements of primary healthcare development relating to the co-ordination and supervision of primary healthcare services and strengthening the work of District Health Centres (DHCs). The DHCs have been co-ordinating the primary healthcare services in the community and facilitating connections of healthcare professionals in public and private sectors in order to better establish a community service network.

Committee members brainstormed various means to further expand the community healthcare network through enlisting more healthcare professionals from different disciplines to join the primary healthcare services, thereby providing more comprehensive and quality-assured primary healthcare support for the people in the community.

The progress of the Chronic Disease Co-Care Pilot Scheme has been shared with committee members in the meeting. It was great to learn that the Pilot Scheme has recorded almost 60 000 participants at the time and the PHC Commission is pursuing promotion with the DHCs to attract more people to the Pilot Scheme via various territory-wide and district-based channels. We wholeheartedly wish the Primary Healthcare Committee every success in the years to come.

The WONCA Asia Pacific Region (APR) Council Meeting 2024 was held successfully in August in Singapore just prior to this year’s WONCA APR Conference. We were glad to have the opportunities to catch up with WONCA President Dr. Karen Flegg, WONCA APR President Dr. Brian Chang (online) and Presidents and representatives of WONCA APR member organisations, especially our Conjoint sister College RACGP’s Acting Vice President Dr. Ramya Raman who has stood in for President Dr. Nicole Higgins. Our College sent a very strong bidding team to attend the WONCA APR Council Meeting in order to bid for hosting the 2027 WONCA APR Conference in Hong Kong, including Prof Donald Li, Prof Cindy Lam, Dr. Stephen Foo, Prof Samuel Wong, Dr. Li Yi Chu, Dr. Lorna Ng, Dr. Esther Yu, Dr. Cheryl Chan, Ms. Erica So, and myself. Our bidding presentation went very well and we are keeping our fingers crossed. Thank you.