Colorectal Cancer Screening Pilot Programme

Tackling the challenges of an ageing population is one of the current-term Government's top priorities. One of the measures to tackle such challenges is the provision of subsidised colorectal cancer screening for specific age groups. In the 2014 Policy Address, I stated, "Due to an ageing population and lifestyle changes, the incidence rate of colorectal cancer has continued to increase. It became the most common cancer in Hong Kong in 2011. Therefore, the Government will subsidise colorectal cancer screening for higher risk groups. The Department of Health is conducting a study with the Hospital Authority and will start the preparatory work of a pilot programme this year."

I am glad that the Government will launch the Colorectal Cancer Screening Pilot Programme in the second half of this year. Under this Programme, eligible Hong Kong residents aged 61 to 70 will be provided with subsidised screening tests in batches over three years. We estimate that the Programme will attract around 300 000 instances of faecal immunochemical test (FIT) screening and cover around 10 000 colonoscopies for cases with positive FIT results.

April 5, 2016