Hong Kong’s ailing public hospitals to get HK$5 billion injection in Financial Secretary Paul Chan’s budget for investing in advanced equipment

Hong Kong’s public hospitals will get a funding injection of HK$5 billion (US$641 million) to be announced in Wednesday’s budget for investing in advanced medical equipment for cancer patients and those who require specialist care.

The offer is part of a basket of morale-boosting measures for public health care as overburdened frontline medical staff have reached breaking point, as evidenced by swamped outpatient clinics during the peak flu season.

Many are also watching to see if Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po’s spending blueprint will support a far-reaching proposal floated by Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, a top microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong.

Yuen, a leading voice in the medical sector, has suggested setting up a HK$50 billion seed fund for the Hospital Authority so that the operator of the city’s public hospitals would be able to weather financial storms.

A source close to the drafting of the budget said the HK$5 billion injection would be spent on advanced equipment as well as upgrading existing facilities. It is understood the authority had asked the government for the funding on top of its regular subvention for new technology for procedures such as CAT scans and cancer therapies.