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HK invites expressions of interest in development of private hospitals |
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 Hong Kong has taken another major step towards increasing affordable high quality health care with the Food & Health Bureau inviting expressions of interest for the development of four private hospitals.
Secretary for Food & Health Dr York Chow said the move would boost capacity and ease the imbalance between public and private healthcare and see new private facilities spread across Hong Kong.
"We also want to ensure our healthcare system can provide the public, particularly the middle class, with more choices and affordable high quality private hospital services," Dr Chow said. |
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The sites include Wong Chuk Hang, Tseung Kwan O, Tai Po and Tung Chung.
Dr Chow said residential property development would not be allowed at these sites.
The Government will work out the proper land-disposal arrangements, including the means, timing and the land premium, after considering all expressions of interest.
A set of special requirements for developing the four sites has been proposed to ensure the new hospitals' services will be of good quality, cater for the community's needs, help develop the medical industry and upgrade the standard of local medical services.
These special requirements include: |
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Using sites primarily for hospital service and supporting facilities, with certain related uses for non-clinical activities being allowed under certain restrictions; |
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Becoming operational within a specified number of years; |
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Providing a specified number of beds with a mix of specialties without slanting towards any particular types of service. In particular, obstetric services should be capped at 20% of the total number of hospital beds; |
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Providing comprehensive charging information for public reference and a certain percentage of bed days for services at the packaged charge; and, |
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Undertaking hospital accreditation on a continuous basis. |
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Dr Chow said the first private hospital could come into service in five to six years, adding the Government will bolster the training of healthcare professionals and create an environment to attract more overseas medical talent to Hong Kong.
"The promotion of private hospital development will not affect the Government's establishment of medical centres of excellence and will not hamper community access to public medical services. The resources to be spent on improving public medical services and implementing service reform will not be cut," Dr Chow said.
The Government is committed to increasing healthcare spending to 17% of overall recurrent expenditure by 2012. The recurrent funding for the Hospital Authority will also be raised by HK$870 million yearly from 2009-10 to 2011-12 for boosting services to cope with public demand.
The expression of interest document and other information are available online at http://www.fhb.gov.hk/eoi/en/
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