Protesters interrupt health forum
A forum on health-care reform was turned into an angry protest yesterday by some elderly and chronic patients who gave vent to their bitterness at the health chief.
Impatient listeners held banners, shouted slogans and repeatedly interrupted the officials and experts, including Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow Yat-ngok, who tried to sell the idea of family doctors at the forum at City University.
'You are basically telling us to die. These so-called family doctors are just for you high officials. We have no money and are not qualified to hire them,' said Leung Sau-yung, an elderly woman among the 100 members of the public at the forum.
Dr Chow promised to make the system affordable to most people and said the middle class might be able to get medical tax concessions. He said he understood the concerns and that the financing of the system would be discussed in the next few months.
The forum was one of two sessions organised by the government to collect public opinions on health-care reform. Another forum will be held today in Causeway Bay.
