Coronavirus pandemic exposes Hong Kong’s inadequate links between public, private hospitals as patients left waiting for treatment
- ‘Non-urgent’ cases postponed as overburdened public hospitals focus on Covid-19 patients
- Only a small number of public patients have been referred to private hospitals for treatment
Ava Ma expected to have a non-malignant ovarian tumour removed in a public hospital in March, after waiting for almost three years for surgery.
“I was hoping to get the surgery done, after waiting so many years,” Ma said, adding that she was worried her condition might deteriorate while she continued waiting.
Critics say the pandemic has exposed the inadequate partnership between Hong Kong’s private health care sector and its overburdened public system, as the private sector could have played a bigger role providing beds, isolation wards and even coronavirus tests.
Ma, a 49-year-old single mother who gets by on monthly government handouts of a few thousand Hong Kong dollars, cannot afford faster but expensive private health services.
So she has no choice but to wait for her surgery, with no idea when it might happen.