Yeoh Eng-kiong

Yeoh Eng-kiong OBE, GBS, JP
楊永強
Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food of Hong Kong
Preceded by	Himself, as Secretary for Health and Welfare
Succeeded by	York Chow
Preceded by	Lily Yam, as Secretary for Environment and Food

Dr. Yeoh Eng Kiong, OBE, GBS, JP (traditional Chinese: 楊永強; simplified Chinese: 杨永强; pinyin: Yáng Yǒngqiáng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Iûⁿ Éng-kiông, born 1946 in Ipoh, Malaysia) was the Secretary for Health and Welfare between 1999 and 2002, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food and a member of the Executive Council between 2002 and 2004 in the Hong Kong Government.

Yeoh's father was the late Yeoh Chin Hin, a Malaysian businessman who was a founder and director of Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad.

Career

Yeoh studied medicine at Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong where he was elected President of the Student Union in 1969 and graduated in 1971. He specialised in gastroenterology. In 1979, he became a consultant physician at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

After a 19-year career at Hong Kong government hospitals, with recognised work in AIDS research, Yeoh became the first Chief Executive of the newly formed Hospital Authority in 1990. In January 1999, He was appointed to the post of Secretary for Health and Welfare (a civil servant position). In 2002, he was appointed as the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food under the new political appointee system.

Yeoh is currently a professor at The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

SARS

Yeoh was heavily criticised by the media subsequently for his handling of the SARS outbreak in 2003. On 14 March 2003, despite the rising number of SARS cases in Hong Kong, Yeoh insisted there were no signs of a widespread outbreak of pneumonia^[1][2] - this was seen as misleading the public into not taking enough health care precautions. At a hearing at a LegCo select committee, he later explained that he had intended to distinguish the then unnamed disease from other forms of community-acquired pneumonia and to correct the Chinese-language media who had equated "atypical pneumonia" with SARS synonymously before the WHO officially named it. He apologised for the misunderstanding in his commincations.^[3]

He was forced to resign on 8 July 2004 to take political responsibility over the SARS outbreak. Yeoh was succeeded by Dr. York Chow.

Awards

In 2005, Yeoh was awarded a Gold Bauhinia Star and an Honorary Fellowship by the University of Hong Kong.

References

1. 創意共享：沙士爆發之初, 衞生福利及食物局局長楊永強強調沒有社區爆發 (2003) [Creative Commons: At the early stage of the SARS outbreak, Yeoh Eng-kiong Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food emphasises there is no outbreak in the community (2003)] (in Chinese). RTHK. Retrieved 2013-02-23.
2. Cannix Yau (15 March 2003). "I am no God:Yeoh". The Standard. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
3. Legislative Council Select Committee to inquire into the handling of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak by the Government and the Hospital Authority Verbatim Transcript of the Twenty-second Public Hearing

• The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong - Professor Eng-kiong YEOH