Public hospitals will be forced to cut staff and services because the Government has refused to finance a $900 million annual pay increment, it has been claimed.
Hospital Authority board member Michael Ho Mun-ka said Treasury officials had told the board the Government would stop providing the budget between 2000-01 and 2002-03.
However, the Government says the authority must pay the annual salary increment to its staff because of contractual obligations.
Along with civil servants, public hospital staff are entitled to an automatic annual increment.
About $23 billion, or 80 per cent of the authority's $27.3 billion budget, is spent on salaries and staff allowances.
It is estimated the authority's pay increment budget will eat up an extra four per cent, or more than $900 million, in the coming three years.