The 31st of May of each year has been designated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the World No Tobacco Day (WNTD). The theme of WNTD 2025 is “Unmasking the Appeal: Exposing Industry Tactics on Tobacco and Nicotine Products”. (please click) On WNTD 2025, the WHO and public health champions from all over the world gathered together to raise awareness about the harmful tactics of the tobacco industry. This year’s WNTD campaign has targeted to reveal the strategies that are being used by the tobacco and nicotine industries to make their harmful products enticing, particularly to young people. By exposing these tactics, WHO seeks to drive awareness, advocate for stronger policies, including a ban on flavours that make tobacco and nicotine products more appealing, and protect public health. 

In Hong Kong, the Hong Kong SAR Government published the Tobacco Control Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2025 in the Gazette in April 2025 to make amendments to the existing legislation for the implementation of the new phase of tobacco control measures. The Bill has been introduced into the

Legislative Council (LegCo) for first and second readings in late April also. (please click) In fact, the Health Bureau announced the overall tobacco control strategy in June last year, setting out the directions under the strategy and short, medium and long-term measures to reduce the social hazards posed by smoking products and safeguard public health. These measures are formulated around four directions under the tobacco control strategy, namely, Regulate Supply, Suppress Demand: reducing the demand for and supply of smoking products; Ban Promotion, Reduce Attractiveness: minimising the attractiveness of smoking products; Expand No Smoking Areas, Mitigate Harm: protecting the public from the hazard of second-hand smoke; and Enhance education, Support Cessation: strengthening the provision of smoking cessation services, with a view to taking forward the tobacco control process in a multipronged and progressive approach. The Bill seeks to amend Ordinances including the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance (Cap. 371), the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance (Cap. 109) and the Fixed Penalty (Smoking Offences) Ordinance (Cap. 600) to provide a legal basis for the implementation of the relevant proposed measures. The Government has published the Tobacco Control Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2025 in the Gazette and the LegCo Bills Committee held its first meeting on 13 May 2025 to review the proposed measures. 

The Hong Kong College of Family Physicians (HKCFP) strongly supports this legislation amendment, recognising that family doctors play a vital role in encouraging patients to quit smoking. As advocates for public health, it is our responsibility to help reduce tobacco-related harm. Let’s join hands to safeguard public health and reduce the impact of smoking on individuals and the healthcare system.

The HKCFP Career Talk 2025 hosted via our Young Doctors’ Committee has been held successfully on 13 June 2025 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at our College’s Wanchai office in Hybrid format. It was well attended and the participants had shown great interests in learning more about what the Family Medicine specialist training entails. Active discussion and interaction took place among the participants, our Young Doctors Committee members and family physicians representatives from public, private and academic sectors. We look forward to welcoming the new generations of family physicians to the HKCFP family in due course!

The fifteen sister Colleges of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine and the Academy itself hold their Conferment Ceremonies annually. This year, the Hong Kong College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has just held their 37th Ceremony recently. Congratulations to the awards recipients, President Dr Leung Tse Ngong and HKCOG for a very successful event!

This year’s early bird registration deadline for World WONCA Conference in Lisbon, Portugal is 25 June 2025. (please click) Please go ahead to register and make a saving if you have not yet done so.