70 pc of beds at city's first private teaching hospital 'affordable care for Hongkongers'

Hopes are growing that the city's first private teaching hospital will provide the most attractive alternative to overburdened public facilities after it pledged to devote 70 per cent of its inpatient beds to affordable care exclusively reserved for Hong Kong permanent residents.

The HK$6.3 billion hospital - due to open in 2019 - has also committed to take up to 17,600 referred specialist outpatient cases and 6,600 new day surgery cases from the Hospital Authority every year, accounting for 10 per cent of its total capacity.

This is the vision of social responsibility for the non-profit project run by the Chinese University of Hong Kong spelled out by Professor Fung Hong, the hospital's executive director.

With the hospital due to provide 600 beds and serve about 250,000 people every year, the remaining 30 per cent of inpatient beds, in single or two-person rooms, will be more costly and open to non-local patients.

"We hope to relieve the pressure on the public health care sector. The package charges are aimed to be affordable to the middle class, [aimed] at the lower end of the price range in the private market. But there is no guarantee that the charges [will be] as inexpensive as hoped by some people," he told the South China Morning Post.

"After all, running a not-for-profit hospital doesn't mean that we don't look for profit. The hospital needs profits to sustain its long-term development," he added.

Fung pledged the care package pricing would be transparent, specifying costs, care and related services so patients had a clear picture.