appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Tony Cheung

In the third of a six-part series on Hong Kong’s novice lawmakers, the Post meets Dr David Lam Tzit-yuen, sole representative of the medical and health services sector. Part two can be found here.
Dr David Lam Tzit-yuen imagines a day when Hong Kong’s community health care will be so well coordinated that people no longer have to travel to public hospitals and endure long waiting times to be treated.
A strong connection between public hospitals and neighbourhood medical professionals will be key to making that dream a reality.
“The community will then become a ‘hospital without walls’,” he said. “We have been relatively slow in pushing this forward, but the population is ageing fast and will not wait.”
‘Bad boys’ or good lawmakers? The legislators who pressed Hong Kong’s leader
Hong Kong’s new medical sector lawmaker told the Post that primary health care, the provision of essential medical services in the community, would be his priority over the next four years.
The 56-year-old surgeon and former vice-president of the Hong Kong Medical Association said he was concerned that Hongkongers, especially the elderly and poor, had to rely on public hospitals for medical follow-ups and essential health care services that ought to be available nearer their homes.
That was because the city lacked a coordinated community health care network which ensured doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, dentists and traditional Chinese medicine practitioners were easily accessible and collaborated to help residents in neighbourhoods and public housing estates.
Last October, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said in her policy address that there was a “pressing need” to promote the development of primary health care services.
Agreeing, lawmaker Lam said: “Residents, especially those discharged from hospital, should have a family doctor who acts as a health care manager helping to connect patients with pharmacists and physiotherapists in the community.
“Or there could be community health care centres where nurses help residents to seek help from pharmacists and doctors.”




He said he believed Hong Kong’s most urgent priorities were health care and housing, while other political issues, such as democratic reforms, could be dealt with later.
Lam said he hoped his plan to expand community medical services would open job opportunities for more than 100,000 health care professionals, whose careers would not be limited to public and private hospitals, which were now either too crowded or niche.
“Medical professionals all want to help people, but there is now a lot of frustration at the workplace and in society,” he said.
“The elderly wait for a year or two [for their appointments] but doctors only have time to see them for five minutes. How can we provide the elderly better services? We need to give medical professionals a direction that we can all work towards.”
Over the past two years, Hong Kong’s economy has been hit hard by the pandemic, and residents, especially medical workers, businessmen and parents, have had a difficult time trying to cope with the coronavirus.
How well can Hong Kong’s affluent lawmakers represent ordinary residents?
Asked to comment on the government’s handling of the pandemic and what more could be done to contain the virus, Lam said boosting vaccination rates would be more effective than adopting universal testing, which some of his pro-establishment colleagues had suggested.
“The uptake rate among the elderly remains low and primary school pupils have yet to be allowed to be vaccinated … even though a government committee endorsed the use of Sinovac from the age of three,” he said.
To alleviate the burden on nurses in public hospitals, health authorities should create more part-time job opportunities for them, he said. Full-time nurses would then have the option to switch to part-time work, while those who quit their jobs because of the workload could also return to help on an intermittent basis, he added.
So far, 4.7 million people, or 70 per cent of the eligible population, have had two jabs of a coronavirus vaccine. Among residents aged between 70 and 79, however, only 47 per cent have had two doses, and just 20 per cent of those aged 80 or above.

Married with a daughter, Lam graduated from Chinese University’s medical school in 1991 and was a surgeon at Prince of Wales and United Christian hospitals before moving to private practice in 2003.
He spent 12 years as a member of the Medical Council, which handles registration and disciplinary matters concerning doctors, and was a vice-president of the Medical Association, which represents more than 12,000 medical practitioners, from 2018 to 2020.
The first-time lawmaker said he supported the government’s plan to revive the city’s Article 23 national security legislation, but expected senior officials to ensure that the draft bill would be “acceptable” to society.
The bill was shelved in 2003 after an estimated half a million people took to the streets to oppose it.
Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 to ban acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. But the central government expects Hong Kong to enact its own national security law – as required under Article 23 of the Basic Law – to prohibit crimes such as treason, sedition and theft of state secrets.
Lam said the Article 23 requirement was “not something special”, adding: “All advanced countries around the world have such laws. The issue is that when it is being drafted, it’s written in a way that’s good and acceptable to all.”
Hong Kong group proposes scheme to screen residents for chronic diseases
His entry to the 90-member Legislative Council followed Beijing’s overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system to ensure only “patriots” were in charge.
Previously, medical and health services were separate functional constituencies in the legislature and were represented by opposition lawmakers or non-establishment independents. In 2016, the voter turnout for the medical sector was 74 per cent and for health services 69 per cent.
The two sectors were merged in last year’s electoral overhaul. Although five candidates were vying for one seat this time around, only 30 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots, indicating that many health care professionals were uninterested in last month’s election.
Lam won with 5,511 votes. Asked whether he was satisfied with the turnout, he said: “It was a free election, and many of my friends voted. Do lawmakers only have a mandate if all voters raised their hand to show support?”
Pro-establishment team to guide messaging and coordinate work in Hong Kong’s Legco
Some analysts have branded Lam pro-government, as he was appointed by mainland Chinese authorities to sit on Tianjin’s Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the northern city’s advisory body.
In February 2020, shortly after Covid-19 cases first hit Hong Kong, he also warned hospital employees against going on strike to force the government to close the border with the mainland, where the coronavirus was wreaking havoc.
Brushing aside such labels, Lam said he had criticised government policies he considered harmful to society and would continue to do so.
“We’ve always believed that while medical professionals can oppose the government in their free time, they must focus on their patients when they are at work,” he said.
“Hong Kong’s medical system has a lot of problems that need to be solved. The patients’ well-being should be the sector’s common goal, and we should leave the politics for the politicians.”
Pointing out he had also opposed a government bill to make it easier for graduates of non-local medical schools to practice in Hong Kong, he asked: “Does that make me anti-government?”
In part 4 of this six-part series, the Post meets Wendy Hong Wen, of the Election Committee constituency


Co-founders of Hong Kong’s Liberal Party quit over move to strip them of honorary posts

Security guards, hotpot meals and photo shoots among election expenses of Hong Kong hopefuls for new Legco constituency

Hong Kong court slaps 2 defendants with suspended jail sentences in first convictions for ban on inciting blank votes

Hong Kong election body finds ex-opposition sectors cast more than 10 per cent of invalid ballots in Legislative Council poll

Hong Kong Legislative Council election 2021

Hong Kong’s novice lawmakers: surgeon hopes to cut waiting times, move health care services closer to residents

Surgeon-turned-lawmaker Dr David Lam hopes to spend the next four years working to improve primary health care in the city. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

David Lam says medical care should be more accessible in people’s communities, rather than only at major hospitals. Photo: Nora Tam

Hong Kong Legislative Council election: shake-up in victorious pro-Beijing camp, with surprise losers, big winners and ‘elite newcomers’

The big winner in Sunday’s Legislative Council election was the DAB, which bagged 19 seats, up from 13. Photo: May Tse

The Liberal Party saw a surprise upset, with leader and incumbent lawmaker Felix Chung (second right), losing the seat he has held since 2012. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

The New People’s Party, led by Regina Ip (third from the right), upped its seat count from two to five. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Hong Kong’s new lawmakers must reach out to the city’s youth and foreign businesses

Students at Hong Kong Polytechnic University on September 21. Lawmakers need to ensure young people do not feel ignored. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Pedestrians on a footbridge in Hong Kong’s financial district on October 7. Foreign companies and businesspeople are the cornerstone of our status as an international trading, financial and transport hub. Photo: Sam Tsang

Hong Kong Legislative Council election: defeated centrists, moderates blame low turnout, warn pro-establishment camp can now ‘do anything’

Defeated centrist candidate Jason Poon has warned of what could happen without checks on the pro-establishment camp in the new Legislative Council. Photo: Nora Tam

Jeffrey Chan of the centrist Path of Democracy was the worst performing non-establishment candidate this year. Photo: Edmond So

Ng Chau-pei (left) and Edward Leung defeated Jason Poon in the Hong Kong Island East constituency. Photo: Dickson Lee

News

Hong Kong

Politics

Meet Hong Kong’s new lawmakers

Hong Kong’s novice lawmakers: Legco’s odd man out pledges to pursue democratic reform, work with pro-establishment camp to improve welfare services

Tik Chi-yuen, Hong Kong’s only centrist lawmaker. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Tik Chi-yuen (right) was a member of the legislature from 1991 to 1995, when the city was still a British colony. Photo: SCMP

Tik Chi-yuen says he hopes to work on policies to expand welfare services for the elderly, disabled and others in need. Photo: Nora Tam

Hong Kong’s novice lawmakers: Anglican priest hopes to give jailed young protesters a second chance with studies, jobs

Newly elected legislator Peter Koon attends an oath-taking ceremony ar the Legislative Council earlier this month. Photo: Sam Tsang

Reverend Canon Peter Koon is perhaps best known now for helping murder suspect Chan Tong-kai, whose case indirectly sparked the 2019 protests. Photo: Sam Tsang

Protests seeking the withdrawal of an extradition bill introduced in response to Chan Tong-kai’s murder case evolved into a months-long movement for broader democratic reform. Photo: Sam Tsang

Legislative Council novices: mainland Chinese transplant wants to close gap between the ‘2 Hong Kongs’

Mainland Chinese transplant Wendy Hong says she will spend her time in the Legislative Council trying to bridge the gap between Hong Kong’s haves and have nots. Photo: Facebook

Wendy Hong is quarantined at Penny’s Bay.  Photo: SCMP

Hong is one of the freshman legislators elected in last month’s Legislative Council poll. Photo: Sam Tsang

Hong has also vowed to tackle the burden on social welfare services posed by mainland Chinese immigrants to the city. Photo: Facebook

Hong Kong’s novice lawmakers: Ambrose Lam is mounting his comeback after being ousted as Law Society president in 2014

Newly minted legislator Ambrose Lam has mounted a comeback after being ousted as head of the Law Society in 2014. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Ambrose Lam speaks to the press in 2014, when a vote of no confidence led to him stepping down as head of the Law Society. Photo: Sam Tsang

Lam has defended the delay in hearing the national security case brought against 47 opposition figures over an unofficial primary in 2020. Photo: Dickson Lee

Hong Kong’s novice lawmakers: representative of mainland Chinese enterprises says sector is ready to help government solve city’s problems

Newly-elected lawmaker Erik Yim says state-owned enterprises in Hong Kong are eager to help the government solve the city’s livelihood problems. Photo: Nora Tam

Yim says mainland enterprises could help the government create transitional housing projects, like this one in Shek Kip Mei. Photo: Winson Wong

Yim brushed off a recent wave of emigration, saying he expected more talent to come to the city once the pandemic was over. Photo: Dickson Lee

David Lam says city’s rapidly ageing society needs a coordinated community health care network
Democratic reforms can wait, while health care, housing are priorities, says medical sector lawmaker


Health care, housing are priorities, and democratic reforms can wait, says medical sector lawmaker David Lam.


Legislative Council of Hong Kong (Legco)

Hong Kong politics

Hong Kong healthcare and hospitals

United Christian Hospital