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Mary Ann

Mary Ann Benitez

The government is looking for sites for new private hospitals in four areas, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen  said yesterday.
'The government is identifying suitable sites, initially including the Wong Chuk Hang, Tseung Kwan O, Tai Po and North Lantau areas,' Mr Tsang said in his policy address.
A Food and Health Bureau spokesman said no further details were available.
Mr Tsang said developing private hospitals would 'consolidate and enhance Hong Kong's position as a prime medical centre in the region'.
Hong Kong has 12 private hospitals but the newest, Union Hospital, opened in 1994.
Mr Tsang said the government would take steps to redress the serious imbalance in the provision of public and private health  services.
Measures would include purchasing primary care services and hospital services from the private sector, subsidising preventive care provided by the private sector, and establishing medical centres of excellence in the areas of paediatrics and neuroscience.
Private Hospitals  Association  president Alan Lau Kwok-lam  said: 'We are positive on the direction of the policy address regarding land for private hospital development.'
He said the association had not been told which sites were being considered.
But Dr Lau said the government should also come up with reforms in health-care financing,  so that there would be 'successful' development of private hospitals.
He said the economic cycle affected demand for private hospital services.
'Unless government can come up with health-care reform and health-care financing, this up-and-down swing of the economic cycle will be very turbulent,' he said.
Medical Association president Tse Hung-hing  said the government should also consider tax exemptions for medical expenses.
He said identifying land for private hospitals was 'a good move', but added 'we want something more concrete'.
Patients  Rights Association  spokesman Tim Pang Hung-cheong  said he was worried the government was shifting its responsibility for health care to the private sector.
'If it is only a minor supplementary plan to provide health-care services it is OK, but if a bigger percentage is in the private sector in the future, it will make us worry,' he said.
'The government might shift a lot of patients to the private sector, and these patients have to pay a lot of money to obtain these services.'
Mr Pang welcomed Mr Tsang's commitment to exploring the concept of community health centres to promote primary care.
But he  said he hoped  the government would subsidise the centres so that fees and charges would be affordable.
The government said a taskforce on primary health care would examine the feasibility of community health centres.
The community health centres would provide comprehensive primary services in local communities and cater for the health-care needs of the elderly and the poor.
Key points
The government will:
Launch the second phase of  public consultation on health-care-financing reform in the first half of next year
Start work on building a public hospital in Tin Shui Wai  in the  northwestern  New Territories   in 2011, for completion in 2015
Set up a working group to take forward proposals for enhancing primary care
Explore the idea of setting up community health centres
Include pneumococcal  vaccine in childhood immunisation programme
Promote public and private care for the chronically sick



Search on for new private hospital sites