'Private Doctors Can Help By Giving Sample Bottles'

The president of the Hong Kong Medical Association said on Wednesday that private family doctors could help boost Covid-19 testing in Hong Kong by distributing samples bottles to more patients with respiratory symptoms, and asking them to submit the samples to government clinics directly.

Dr Ho Chung-ping told an RTHK programme that the family members of patients could help collect the sample bottles and deliver them, to prevent cross-infections.

“I told my colleagues that if you are familiar with the patient and he told you the symptoms over the phone, you may tell him you don’t have to come. Your family members can come and get a sample bottle and we’ll teach them what to do. They can then send the samples directly to government clinics,” he said.

He said private doctors could also help identify asymptomatic patients who have come into contact with Covid-19 patients.

“Identifying asymptomatic patients is difficult. For example, if one of your colleagues is infected, you may have already become a silent virus carrier. These people can contact their family doctors and we’ll see how we can help them,” he said.

The doctor said that as of Monday, about 78 of the confirmed cases were found through samples submitted by private doctors under the enhanced laboratory surveillance scheme.

Ho said under the scheme, private practitioners have so far collected more than 1,000 samples, and he believes that more can be done.

He said he was not worried about a shortage of testing kits.

“What Hong Kong has is money. As long as we have the determination to do it, we can do it. But we need cooperation from citizens. They should contact their family doctors as soon as they develop symptoms” he said.

His comments come after Dr Wong Ka-hing, the Controller for the Centre for Health Protection, urged the city's private practitioners to step up Covid-19 testing and consider giving patients showing mild symptoms a test, regardless of the patient's travel history.

During a daily press briefing on the number of Covid-19 cases, Wong said on Tuesday that the CHP has noted that a number of recently confirmed cases, especially younger patients, only showed mild symptoms like a runny nose.