MR CHAN KIN-POR (in Cantonese): President, Secretary Dr KO will soon leave the Government. Many members of the public would like me to express gratitude to him and thank him for his hard work and dedication over the past five years to make substantial contributions to the health care system of Hong Kong, including injecting $100 billion in building medical infrastructure. I wish Secretary Dr KO good health and all the best.
I will now ask my supplementary question. In the last paragraph of the main reply, it is pointed out that due to limited resources, the Government has no plans at present to provide additional psychiatric SOP services in the evenings or on weekends. May I ask whether the Government will first conduct studies on the demand for such services before considering the possibility of deploying additional resources?
SECRETARY FOR FOOD AND HEALTH (in Cantonese): President, I thank Mr CHAN Kin-por for the supplementary question. Regarding the issue of providing psychiatric SOP services in the evenings, I would like to draw Members’ attention to one point which I have also mentioned in my main reply earlier. Some psychiatric patients who have a need for psychiatric services in the evenings or during non-office hours may need injection treatment. The authorities have already made arrangement to provide injection treatment for them during non-office hours. At present, though the authorities cannot provide consultation services in the evenings, I think there is a need in this regard.
Mr CHAN asked whether the authorities would consider assessing the demand for this special service. I dare not say whether an assessment would be conducted specifically for this service, but HA has been closely monitoring the demand for various services, including psychiatric services. Thus, we know there is a demand in this respect.
As I said in reply to Mr CHAN Han-pan’s question earlier, when the level of our resources and manpower reach a certain point, we will consider improving psychiatric services in different areas.