First rehabilitation centre for cancer patients opens
Hong Kong's first cancer rehabilitation centre has opened in Wong Chuk Hang, with patients offered cooking classes, video games and tai chi in a break from the gloomy wards and monotonous schedules of the past.
The centre, run by the Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society and sponsored by the Jockey Club, will provide 110 beds by 2010. It also features a learning kitchen, hair salon, Chinese medicine centre and a mini rehab supermarket.
All patients will have their own private flat-screen televisions and Wi-fi access. In single rooms, family members will be able to stay overnight on sofa beds.
Patients will be able to be directly admitted to the Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society Jockey Club Rehabilitation Centre without referral from hospitals. Daily room charges start at HK$800 for a place in a six-bed room up to HK$3,100 for a single deluxe room. Medicines are extra.
Anti-Cancer Society chairman Ko Wing-man yesterday said the price was 'somewhere between private and public hospitals'.
'The room charge covers all the basic care services, including one daily doctor's round, 24-hour nursing care and recreational activities,' he said.
Dr Ko said he was worried that the financial crisis might deter patients from using the rehab centre, but he was 'confident that there is such a need in society'.
The non-profit-making centre was converted from the Nam Long Hospital with a HK$109.23 million donation from the Jockey Club. Dr Ko said some HK$10 million had been originally set aside for operating funds, but was ultimately used to pay for construction cost overruns.
The society is now looking for more donations to keep the centre running.
'If we have enough donations, room charges could be lowered,' he said.
The centre is still in a trial operation phase, with only two patients, but Dr Ko said it hoped to offer more services by the beginning of next year.
The centre will form a partnership with Baptist University, with professors and mainland specialists providing Chinese medicine services.
Dr Ko said the centre could cater to all cancer patients, except those who were set to undergo operations.
