The 13th Joint Meeting of Senior Health Officials of the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao was held in Anhui’s Hefei city on Nov 27. Wang Guoqiang, vice-minister of the NHFPC and director general of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, attended the meeting and delivered a speech.

Wang said that health administrations of the three parties have actively carried out consensus of the last joint meeting and continue to strengthen cooperation in infectious disease information reporting, traditional Chinese medicine standardization construction, national medical science and technology innovation system construction, and the ageing population response mechanism. Important achievements have been made. Wang asked the three parties to make full use of the joint meeting mechanism to cope with new health challenges, play their advantages, learn from each other, deepen practical cooperation, and make greater contributions to boost health development and improve public health across the three areas.

The meeting revolved around policies and practices in new infectious disease treatment, non-infective disease prevention and control strategy, medical reform and community-level medical services. Participants exchanged experiences and reached the following consensus. First, they should strengthen the expert cooperation mechanism in new infectious disease prevention and control, as well as deepen communications in epidemic situation study, treatment, virus detection, vaccines, and drug research and development. Second, they should strengthen experience exchange in non-infectious disease prevention and control, improve the level of health education, and help change behavioral factors against health. Third, they should strengthen health care reform experience exchange and learn from each other in non-government-sponsored medical practice, medical insurance, health legal system construction, essential drug system and community-level health services. Fourth, they should strengthen community-level medical cooperation, improve and perfect community-level medical service measures, and jointly upgrade community-level medical services in the three areas.

Ko Wing-man, HK secretary for food and health; LEI, Chin Ion, head of the Macao health administration; and more than 30 officials and experts from health departments of the three areas attended the meeting. Zhan Xialai, executive vice-governor of Anhui, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a welcome speech. After the meeting, participants visited the health service center at the Shuanggang community in Hefei’s Luyang district and the Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University.

The joint meeting mechanism was founded in 2002 and is held annually in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao in turns. It focuses on exchange of experience in common health issues and facilitates cooperation among the three areas. This year’s meeting decided that the next session will be held in Macao in the fourth quarter of 2015.