A chance to learn or extra pressure? Hong Kong doctors divided on China’s Greater Bay Area plans for health care
- Opening up the Guangdong health care sector to Hong Kong doctors would provide myriad opportunities, some practitioners say
- But others fear an influx of patients from across the border would place a bigger strain on the local system
More Hong Kong doctors may be heading for the mainland if plans to develop better health care services in China’s “Greater Bay Area” take off.
Pioneers who have already made the move to Guangdong in recent years say the prospects are exciting, and city doctors would gain not only from the business opportunities, but also in terms of knowledge and experience if they treat the much larger pool of patients there.
Ophthalmologist Dr Dennis Lam Shun-chiu, who opened his first mainland eye hospital in Shenzhen in 2013, said there was great demand for quality services across the border, including from Hong Kong retirees living there.
“They would be interested in health care services provided by Hongkongers,” he said.
The greater demand for Hong Kong care on the mainland could also lead to an enlargement of capacity in the city itself, added Lam, who has hospitals in Beijing and Kunming too. It might even provide the impetus to open a third medical school in the city, he said.
Others, however, worry that Hong Kong’s manpower-starved public health sector would take a hit if more patients started turning up. The city’s finance minister, Paul Chan Mo-po, will on Wednesday unveil his 2019-20 budget, and all eyes will be on whether he dishes out more resources for struggling medical professionals, which could help prevent any possible brain drain to the mainland.