Editorial | Blueprint the start to reshaping healthcare in Hong Kong
- Reform is long overdue and the Primary Healthcare Blueprint is a welcome sign that authorities are finally taking action to head off the increasing demands of a rapidly ageing population
Hong Kong has taken another important step to shift healthcare in the city away from its unsustainable reliance on hospitals by developing a primary care system.
Described as the biggest reform of the system since the Hospital Authority was established in 1990, the government’s Primary Healthcare Blueprint, unveiled on Monday, aims to put resources into district-based centres and the private sector to better manage the needs of a rapidly ageing population.
Reform is long overdue and the blueprint is a welcome sign that authorities are finally taking action to head off the increasing demand for care. Undersecretary for Health Libby Lee Ha-yun said it will “unlock the arteries” of the public and private healthcare system.
But Lee admitted the ambitious process could still take up to a decade to complete, by which point an estimated one in three residents will be elderly or suffering from a chronic disease.
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A main component of the plan is the establishment of health centres in each of the city’s 18 districts. Residents with non-urgent medical needs will be encouraged to turn to the local clinics and family doctors, rather than rush to public hospitals. The two-pronged approach has proved successful in many other communities around the world.