Secretary for Health Prof Lo Chung-mau met a delegation led by Guangzhou Vice Mayor Lai Zhihong today to discuss the deepening of medical co-operation between Hong Kong and Guangzhou.
At the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on various cross-boundary medical collaboration measures, including the Elderly Health Care Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Scheme, cross-boundary access to electronic health records via the eHealth mobile application, and the strengthening of exchanges between healthcare professionals from the two places.
Prof Lo stressed that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government attaches great importance to cross-boundary medical collaboration, and has long been committed to it as way of enhancing healthcare across the Greater Bay Area (GBA) for the benefit of the region’s residents.
He said the Health Bureau is pressing ahead with the pilot scheme’s extension to all of the GBA’s nine Mainland cities, as set out in the Chief Executive’s 2024 Policy Address, and aims to announce more details in the first half of this year.
He also iterated that that the bureau will fully leverage the eHealth platform to expand the sharing of cross-boundary medical records.
“I have every confidence that under the guidance of key policies such as the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the National 14th Five-Year Plan, as well as the Resolution of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization adopted by the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, Hong Kong and Guangzhou will take forward healthcare integration and innovation in the GBA through concerted efforts in accordance with the principles of complementarity and mutual benefits, thereby contributing to the needs of national development.”
