Dr Eng Kiong Yeoh was appointed Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food in the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on 1 July 2002. Prior to this appointment, he was the Secretary for Health and Welfare in the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region since September 1999. He studied medicine at the University of Hong Kong and graduated in 1971. He then joined the Medical and Health Department of the Hong Kong Government as a physician and subsequently obtained his postgraduate qualifications in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Yeoh was appointed as consultant Physician in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 1979 and served in this position up to 1990. As a clinician, he has made substantial contributions in the field of gastroenterology and hepatology in Hong Kong. He was best known for his work on AIDS and hepatitis and has published many articles in journals which included research papers on hepatitis B, epidemiology, prevention and treatment and the epidemiology of AIDS in Asia.

Dr Yeoh has been a very active member of many medical / professional boards and committees including serving as the Chairman of the Licentiate Committee of the Medical Council of Hong Kong, President of the Hong Kong Society of Gastroenterology, and the Hong Kong Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, the Vice President of the Hong Kong College of Physicians and the Hong Kong Society for the Aged. He was also the President of the International Hospital Federation (2001 - 2003). He is also the Hon. Advisor to the Chinese Medical Management Association, The People's Republic of China. He is Professor of Public Health in the Department of Community and Family Medicine and School of Public Health of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is Honorary Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Community Medicine of The University of Hong Kong, and Honorary Professor of the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics of The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

In December 1990, Dr Yeoh was appointed Director of Operations of the Hospital Authority when the public hospital system in Hong Kong underwent a major reform with the establishment of an independent statutory Hospital Authority. Designated as the Senior Principal Officer of the Authority and the most senior executive reporting to the Board, he was charged with the responsibility for the management and reform of the public hospital, which hitherto had been managed by 16 independent provider organizations.
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In January 1994, Dr Yeoh was appointed as the Chief Executive of the Hospital Authority and has been in this position until his appointment as Secretary for Health and Welfare. As the Chief Executive of the Authority, he was directly accountable to the Chairman and Members of the Hospital Authority Board for the operation and management of the public hospital system in Hong Kong, comprising 27,000 hospital beds in the 44 public hospitals and institutions and 50 specialist clinics, and 50,000 staff. Dr Yeoh has led the transformation of the Hong Kong public hospital sector into a patient centred and outcome oriented organization.

As Secretary of Health, Welfare and Food of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, he established systems in the healthcare delivery, financing and quality assurance systems for a vision of "a lifelong investment on health". He modernised the capabilities of the system to deal with the threat of outbreaks of infectious diseases. In the welfare portfolio, he instituted changes in funding and organization which would facilitate outputs and outcomes.