Featured Doctor

LI, Dr Donald KT

Hong Kong, China- WONCA President Elect

Donald Li MBBS FHKCFP FRACGP FHKAM (Fam Med) FFPH SBS O St J JP was elected WONCA President-elect at the recent World Council meeting in Rio, and will assume the office of WONCA President in November 2018.

What work do you do now?

I am still seeing patients with 70 % of my time being in private practice. I have just stepped down as President and am now the Immediate Past President of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine (a statutory body responsible for postgraduate training and standards of all specialists).

Of course as WONCA President–elect I am doing WONCA related work, but I am also involved in a number of other organisations. I am chair of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Disaster Preparedness and Response Institute (HKJC DPRI), with a mission to build a prepared community in Hong Kong to respond to disasters. With our academic and community partners, we provide comprehensive training, research, policy exchange and platform to enhance resilience in the community. We focus on the need for competencies on knowledge, skills as well as attitude to reduce disaster loss and suffering.

I also chair the Sheng Kung Hui Welfare council - a church related social welfare institute which manages over 200 child, youth elderly daycare centers, schools and old people's homes. In Hong Kong we also have the Bauhinia Foundation research Centre that does a lot of research on the competitiveness of Hong Kong and I chair the think tank. I serve as Honorary Secretary of St John's Ambulance of Hong Kong.

Interesting things you have done?

- I serve on the Board of the Hong Kong Jockey Club which is amongst top ten philanthropic charitable trust funds in the world.

- In China, I have been teaching Family Medicine, and assisting in training new family doctors. (pictured right at the Shenzen Training Centre)

- I have had the pleasure of setting up a Chinese restaurant "Good Kitchen", involving menu design and recipes - with a dish named after me: "Donald's Duck" (pictured below right).

What do you hope to achieve as WONCA’s president elect?

(we will ask you about your aspirations as president next year)?

- I want to learn about culture, expectations, aspirations of family doctors in the different regions and around the world.

- I would like to get to know members of the executive of WONCA and I need to learn more about our Working Parties, SIGs and our Young Doctors’ movements.

- I wish to build and formulate strategy to provide effective leadership when I become president and this will of course include to strengthen our relationship with WHO.

Your interests inside and outside work?

My interests in my work include:

- Family Medicine training to meet the needs of the Hong Kong public
- Healthcare financing
- Healthcare policy - I serve on numerous government boards and committees of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Government
- Through my work at the HKJC DPRI I take a lot of interest in the role of Family Doctors in Disaster response, building community resilience . Through my work at the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine I maintain my interest in quality and safety in specialist training .

Outside work my interests include:

- Gourmet cooking
- Rating restaurants
- Wine tasting
- Food related travels
- Horse Racing (pictured at right: at Shatin race course in Hong Kong)