事項與發展
國 際 煙 草 成 癮 治 理 研 討 會衞 生 署 副 署 長 閉 幕 致 辭 |
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Ladies and Gentlemen, A very good afternoon. I cannot tell you what honour you have done to the Department by your participation in this International Symposium. And as your proud host, it gives me enormous pleasure to deliver this closing remark. However, the trouble is that there is just so much to say that I don't really know where to start! So, I would simply speak my mind and begin from the very beginning by telling you how this Symposium actually came into being. You would no doubt appreciate that in public life, highlighting the success of individuals can be a hazardous and invidious occupation - particularly if it happens to be someone like your own boss. But the fact remains that my boss, Dr P Y LAM was truly the think tank behind both the public-private partnership mode of delivery that we are adopting for our enhanced smoking cessation programme and also the coupling of its launching with an international symposium. He owed his inspirations from learnings during his Harvard Business School days. But nothing could have materialized so quickly were it not for the speedy response from Hong Kong's much respected charity organization, The Tung Wah Group of Hospitals. Its Integrated Centre on Smoking Cessation for which our Department subvented was officially opened last Saturday - only nine months after the Lam's conception that I've just referred to. From that day onward, Hong Kong has a comprehensive Mayo-like quit smoking service. And it's free. Such a decisive move would hardly come as a surprise if only one knows that Tung Wah's Chairman, Mr Patrick MA who was here at the opening yesterday was himself a Wharton graduate. So, ladies and gentlemen, while it remains to be seen whether HBS and Wharton can offer practical solutions to the current credit crunch, these top business schools have definitely produced alumni with both the vision and determination to fight the present tobacco epidemic. Now that I am on America, perhaps you would kindly allow me to stay on with my "west side story", for I must pay tribute to four great fellow American friends. To begin with, it was Mayor Michael BLOOMBERG. The Mayor's very generous invitation for me to attend the international summit on climate change in June '08 also provided a convenient opportunity for me to visit the much quoted Mayo Clinic of Rochester and New York City Health Department's Bureau of Tobacco Control. In Rochester, my respectful medical school senior, Dr Carl CHAN, himself a rehabilitation doctor in Mayo, helped to line up my meeting with Prof Richard HURT. Richard agreed to help Hong Kong out by serving as our international advisor almost instantaneously. For this selfless commitment, I am greatly indebted. I also spent hours in Miss Sarah PERL's New York downtown office to listen to the extremely successful "Big Apple" tobacco control story. I was so impressed that I decided on the spot that she must come to speak to the audience of this Symposium. Moreover, she very kindly introduced me to another champion at some distance away - Quit Victoria. This is why Miss Fiona Jane SHARKIE from down under is with us today. Fiona, you now know that somewhere out there, you indeed have a friend although the present Australian fires are very much the concern of each and every one of us here. Our thoughts are most certainly with the Australians in general and the Victorians in particular. Neither an American nor an Australian, still on US soil though, I also called on someone very dear to my heart as I passed by Boston - someone with exactly the same first and second names as our Australian speaker, but a different surname, Dr Fiona Jane ADSHEAD. Then my English counterpart, Fiona was on study leave in Harvard. I must say in all honesty that the Kennedy School courses which Fiona attended were definitely "value for money", for she was simply occupied from morning till night. The only gap that she could squeeze to hear my proposal was over seafood combo dinner in Harvard Square's Legal Seafood. And guess when? Friday night, of course. So, ladies and gentlemen, while it was no doubt excellent that Fiona too replied in the affirmative, I certainly had a very first hand experience of the meaning of the American acronym "TGIF". As far as the list of international speakers went, there still remained a vacancy for someone from the north. Locating a Nordic candidate would have been a much harder task were it not for the great favour done by my boarding schoolmate of 34 years then, Mr Timo RAJAKANGAS, the Finnish Consul General in Hong Kong. No sooner, the Finnish authority nominated Dr Antero HELOMA as their best representation. I am sure - not snus that all of us who had heard his presentation yesterday couldn't agree more. Returning to the east from afar, the very generous support that our Ministry of Health and our Macau sister department have rendered us is most appreciated. Together, we have described the Chinese spectrum. It only remains right for me to thank speakers and moderators from all over this country for their most professional contributions to make the Sino picture complete. Obviously, I cannot mention all who have helped us along the way, but special thanks must be paid to Director-General L J WANG and Ms XU Xiao-chao from the Ministry, Prof XIAO Dan from Beijing; Macau's Director of Health, Dr C I LEI and his subject official, Dr T C LUO; our Department's Honourable Consultants, Prof Sian GRIFFITHS - yes Sian, you do represent CHINA and Dr Homer TSO; our credible local advisors, Miss Ophelia CHAN, Prof Sophia CHAN, Miss Lisa LAU and Dr Gene TSOI; two highly regarded academics, Prof T H LAM and Prof Vincent LEE; Hong Kong's internationally renowned anti-smoking pioneer, Dr Judith MACKAY; and finally, our Department's family medicine consultant, Dr Luke TSANG and his Nursing Officer, Miss Jenny PANG. Just as well that I am on our faculty of staff, I seldom have the opportunity publicly to express my gratitude to our extremely dedicated team from the Tobacco Control Office. So, I shall take it now. It would be more than apparent that given that I have done so little, at the end of the day, it is all these wonderful people's hard work that have made the whole difference. I simply cannot thank them enough for the results you have seen. Yet, above all, ladies and gentlemen, it is most heartening to see you all here these two days. Your partnership is nothing less than crucial in our attempt to bring about improvements to Hong Kong's stop smoking service. I cannot stress this more strongly. Intersectoral collaboration and community participation remain as much the cornerstones of primary health care, quit smoking included, this day as they were according to the Alma Ata Declaration of 1977. I sincerely hope that all of you, as a result of having attended this Symposium, have become inspired to take up some roles in our present move. Ladies and gentlemen, I am sure that you will all endorse that this very high standard Symposium has been one of the best possible ways to start a new year and a new project. Judging from your enthusiasm, I have every confidence that you will continue to give this initiative the attention and care that it will need. And now, as we have come to the end of the beginning, let me reveal how much the Department looks forward to welcoming you all back in the not too distant future to listen to the results of our efforts. Till then, thank you and see you. Dr Gloria TAM, JP |
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