何敏嘉

English

Michael Ho Mun-ka is a Hong Kong politician who came from the nursing profession. Born in 1955, he is a registered general and psychiatric nurse with a diploma in nursing administration and a bachelor's degree in nursing. He worked in public hospitals early in his career, gaining a close understanding of frontline nursing, shift arrangements and the operation of medical services. A member of the Democratic Party, he has long followed issues such as health care manpower, public medical resources and patients' rights. In the 1995 Legislative Council election he stood for the Health Services functional constituency and won with 4,968 votes, about 82 per cent of the vote, reflecting support from the nursing field. He was returned again for the same constituency in the 1998 election for the first Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, serving until 2000. In the council he spoke for the nursing and allied health sectors, giving views on health care financing, nurse manpower and training, hospital management and primary care, and bringing frontline medical concerns into the legislature; he argued that nurses are the backbone of the health system and that the government should improve staffing and pay in public hospitals to retain talent. He chaired a Hong Kong nursing staff association from 2000 to 2002, continuing to advance the rights of nursing colleagues. A graduate of St Joseph's Anglo-Chinese School, he has held considerable influence in nursing and public health policy over the years.