Secretary for Health Prof Lo Chung-mau today said the response to the Chronic Disease Co-Care Pilot Scheme has been encouraging in terms of the number of participating doctors and the availability of service points for participants. 

Prof Lo made the remarks after attending a radio programme, adding that the scheme still has room for improvement, and measures and a review may be required for those improvements.

The pilot scheme, launched about 20 months ago, provides Government-subsidised diabetes mellitus and hypertension screening and doctor consultation services to Hong Kong residents aged 45 or above with no known medical history of either disease, with the aim to encourage citizens to receive early screening in order to get a better understanding of their own health status, so as to achieve the objectives of early prevention, early identification and early treatment.

“We have already recruited 140,000 people with 80,000 having completed all the screening, and 32,000 were actually found to have high blood sugar or hypertension. So the positive rate on this screening programme is almost 40%.”

Looking at the programme as a whole, the health chief said the response is encouraging.

“We have right now 640 doctors joining and they have close to 900 service points for our participants to get the service. Of course, there is room for improvement.

“We will be making measures and considering reviewing the current programme with the intent to improve it, to encourage more doctors (to) participate as well as people. But right now I think this is very encouraging,” he added.