Revise medical subsidy scheme to lure more private doctors
It sounds good on paper and certainly has the potential to help cut waiting times at public hospitals. But it hasn't worked out well so far.
It sounds good on paper and certainly has the potential to help cut waiting times at public hospitals. But it hasn't worked out well so far.
The pilot public-private partnership project, which is now running in Wong Tai Sin, Kwun Tong and Tuen Mun, provides hypertension patients with a subsidy of HK$2,708 for 10 treatments a year at a private clinic. The idea is to reduce their waiting time at public outpatient services and, if successful, expand the scheme to cover other chronic illnesses such as diabetes.Unfortunately, it has proved to be unpopular with many private doctors. Only 79 of more than 400 private practitioners in those districts have joined the scheme since it began in April. Most who have joined belong to medical chains, while many others have criticised the subsidy because they say it is simply not enough to cover their services.
The Medical Association, which originally planned to promote the scheme, has withdrawn its offer. It is, without doubt, being disingenuous when it accuses the Hospital Authority of "conflict of interest" in trying to set a price for such consultations. Would the association or its private members have less of a conflict - or rather a direct interest in raising the charges?
Still, given the fanfare with which the authority has promoted the scheme, it could have done a better job in coordinating with private doctors to encourage more of them to join. Renegotiating the level of subsidy is one way to resolve their differences.
Public hospitals are badly overstretched, their doctors and nurses are overworked and patients face ever longer waiting times before they receive treatment. The public-private partnership is part of a multi-pronged approach to address these pressing problems.
The scheme in question has potential but it clearly needs to be revamped to make it more attractive to private doctors. Its success could become a model for the treatment of other chronically ill patients.
