Providing “Hong Kong-style” medical services for patients on the mainland is a prescription for improving health and business, according to specialists from the city now seeking qualifications to practise in the Greater Bay Area. Authorities on both sides of the border would be wise to help smooth the way for medical integration that could raise standards across the region, but Hong Kong’s overstretched healthcare system must not suffer in the process.

Growing demand for the type of care the city offers is an unexpected side effect of the Covid-19 pandemic when control measures prevented Hongkongers on the mainland from returning across the border for treatment they were more familiar with. More than 500,000 permanent residents live outside the city and in the bay area. Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong are grouped in the area Beijing hopes to turn into an economic powerhouse.

Since pandemic restrictions eased, there have been moves to standardise healthcare on both sides of the border. In June, Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said the city should take a leading role in training professionals. Former health minister Dr Ko Wing-man, who is now honorary president of the Greater Bay Area Medical Professional Development Association, said the body was setting up centres to foster integration as well as help Hong Kong doctors apply for qualification certificates and buy practice liability insurance. About 30 Hong Kong doctors have applied so far.

Such efforts must be balanced against the need to recruit talent for Hong Kong’s own healthcare sector. The city has seen a record drop in personnel in recent years. It is also struggling to improve primary healthcare to ease the burden on public hospitals.