Funding model able to cover needs of Hong Kong’s public hospitals, health chief insists
But Sophia Chan says community health care services must be strengthened to divert rising demand away from hospitals as city’s population ages
Hong Kong’s health chief on Saturday said community health care services must be strengthened to reduce hospitalisation rates, after the city’s public hospitals reported their first financial deficit in eight years.
But Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee insisted that the current funding model for the Hospital Authority would be able to meet the growing needs of health care service providers as the city’s population aged in the coming decades.
Public health care spending has been on the rise in recent years, with expenditure this financial year standing at HK$62 billion, up HK$3.2 billion from 2016-17.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced in her maiden policy address in October that an extra HK$2 billion of annual funding would be set aside for the Hospital Authority, starting from next year, to meet rising demand.
The adjustment proved to be timely for the body, which manages the city’s 41 public medical institutions. According to its annual report submitted to the city’s legislature on Friday, it recorded a deficit of HK$1.52 billion in the year ending March 31.