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National Health Service Experts Sharing Insights with Hong Kong Healthcare Government Officials and Industry

A National Health Service (NHS) Healthcare Roundtable with industry was hosted by GS1 Hong Kong on 17 February embracing the theme of “Driving Patient-centered Healthcare Safety”. The roundtable was attended by around 30 industry experts from healthcare, medical and pharmaceutical industries, with speeches delivered by Prof. Philip Dean, Head of Pharmacy & Quality Control Laboratory Services from North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and Glen Hodgson, Head of Healthcare from GS1 UK.

The sharing sparked a stimulating discussion on opportunities, risks and challenges encountered in the Hong Kong healthcare scene. The industry including private hospitals, pharmaceutical manufacturers and healthcare associations all support the idea of GTIN marking on item pack to facilitate automation, recall, etc. if government has such a requirement.

On the same day, meetings were held with the Food and Health Bureau and the Hospital Authority, the Department of Health (DoH) of Hong Kong SAR. Through sharing of NHS case to explore and conveyed the industry expressed message to support the idea of GTIN marking on item pack. Mr. Howard Chan, the Deputy Secretary of Food and Health Bureau, suggested Hospital Authority to explore use case on adopting GTIN on item pack for drugs that procured by public hospitals directly from drug manufacturer/distributor. GS1 Hong Kong is closely working with Hospital Authority and DoH on the pilot possibility.