New ideas needed to help Hong Kong elderly cope with their health problems
Experts speak out on our ageing population, with one saying that a voluntary health insurance scheme will not be enough to cope
The elderly in Hong Kong live longer than their peers in other top cities such as New York and London. They are also the healthiest and the least likely to suffer from chronic diseases.
That's the good news. The bad news is the aged in Hong Kong are likely to receive worse health care than those in the other two cities. There are also fewer doctors per patient for them and they are more likely to end up in institutionalised care.
The prospects for improving their living standards also remain gloomy given the shortage of doctors, overburdened public hospitals, a frail primary care system and a shortage of old-age homes.
Citing these findings from his years of studying the Hong Kong system, American professor Victor Rodwin believes there is an urgent need to do much more than having a voluntary health insurance scheme, as recently proposed by the government, to solve the litany of woes.
"It is best to have a compulsory health insurance scheme," suggests Rodwin, author of Health in Hong Kong: An International Urban Perspective, which was published in 2011.
The New York University expert in community health and medical care systems was in town last week for a big conference organised by Chinese University's new centre for bioethics, on challenges facing governments over ageing populations.