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A new teaching hospital in Shenzhen will create an 'overwhelming demand' from both mainland and Hong Kong patients.
Leong Che-hung, council chairman of the University of Hong Kong, was speaking about the new 2,000-bed University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Hospital, due to open by the end of this year.
It will charge a fixed price of 500 yuan (HK$602) per day for patients on the public health-care scheme, covering everything including the cost of the bed, medicine, doctors' fees and operations.
Leung is confident it will also attract many private patients looking for high-quality services, including  senior mainland officials. 
The hospital is being built and funded by the Shenzhen government and it will be HKU's second teaching hospital after Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam.
The project is supported by the Ministry of Health and is seen as a groundbreaking move that will be at the forefront of the mainland's health care reform. HKU is in the final  stages of working out details of the collaboration with the Shenzhen authorities. 
Talks will be held on the governance of the hospital, its financing and the appointment of senior management. Leong said the hospital would be governed by a board that will include members from both the university and Shenzhen hospitals. 
HKU has the authority to appoint the hospital chief and senior managers, including department heads.
About 60 per cent of beds will be set aside for the public, with the rest for private patients. 
The hospital will focus on five areas for which HKU Medical School is traditionally renowned - organ transplants, spinal and joint surgery, assisted human reproduction, cardiology and oncology.
It plans to hire more than 100 doctors, some of them from the mainland. HKU will also send senior doctors to the hospital in a teaching capacity.
Leong said: 'The HKU will not invest any money into this project, and will not take any profit. 
'Our role is to provide professional services and the management of the hospital.'
He said he understood concerns that the project may compromise Hong Kong public services by diverting medical expertise to Shenzhen.
But he added: 'While the Shenzhen hospital buys our services, we can use that money to hire more doctors in Hong Kong. 
'This will not affect our services in Hong Kong. Our senior doctors will be teaching in Shenzhen. They can teach our HKU students there.'
As the HKU has no hospital management experience, retired senior executives from the Hospital Authority in Hong Kong will help run the Shenzhen hospital. 
The hospital is expected to break even in five years.
Leong admitted that the project is not being launched 'at the best time', as Hong Kong is struggling with a severe shortage of doctors. 
But he said the plan would benefit local students in the long run and it would allow the university tap into the mainland's research resources.
HKU vice-chancellor Tsui Lap-chee earlier said the Shenzhen hospital would be 'run in a HKU way'.
The university promises to introduce clinical audits and other quality assurance plans for the Shenzhen branch.
Leong said the hospital would pay doctors a fixed salary and would not allow them to receive bonuses from drugs sales - a common practice at mainland hospitals.
Mainland doctors are normally on very low salaries and make money mainly from drugs sales or receiving bribes from patients. 
Leong pledged to impose a stringent audit system to weed out such practices. 
The president of the Hong Kong Medical Association, Dr Choi Kin, said some HKU doctors had expressed reluctance to join the project.
He said: 'Some worry about the continuity of care for mainland patients. If a Shenzhen hospital patient develops complications after an operation, the doctors worry that they may not be able to take care of the patient because they have to come back to Hong Kong.'



HKU teaching hospital in Shenzhen will be big draw