The chair of the department of orthopaedics and traumatology at Chinese University (CUHK) on Sunday said the tertiary institution will send a large team of medical experts to support SAR athletes competing in the National Games this November.

For the first time, Hong Kong is co-hosting the Games with Guangdong and Macau.

Professor Patrick Yung, who also serves as a long-time honorary medical doctor for the Hong Kong Sports Institute (HKSI), said the team will follow athletes to major Guangdong cities.

“We cover the whole Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macau as well, and there are many satellite cities that host different events, so we estimate that we need a much bigger team of medical delegates than before,” he said to reporters after attending a radio programme.

“So for CUHK Medicine, we already committed medical doctors, physiotherapists, athletic trainers, to help, not just locally, but essentially mostly cover the major cities in Guangdong province, so that we will support them in quite a number of different competitions.”

Separately, Yung said a Memorandum of Understanding recently signed between CUHK Medicine and the HKSI two months ago would improve the quality of care for elite athletes.

“Essentially, we increase the number of consultation sessions per week, and the number of orthopaedics specialists taking care of sports injuries and medical doctors, to visit HKSI more often,” he said.

CUHK has also arranged for doctors and specialists to come over to the HKSI on a regular basis to deliver updated knowledge on sports injuries, he added

Vincent Cheng, the HKSI’s vice-chairman, said the partnership would also work on research and innovation projects in sports medicine and sports science.