Cheap Beds At Private Hospitals 'under-utilised'

Low-cost hospital beds at private hospitals are under-utilised and the Ombudsman is launching an investigation into the government's monitoring work.

Currently, two private hospitals – St Teresa's Hospital in Kowloon City and Adventist Hospital in Tsuen Wan – provide a total of 164 low-charge beds.

As part of their land-grant conditions, they are required to offer no less than 20 percent of their total beds as low-charge beds.

But even with the referral of public-hospital patients to the two private hospitals during flu peaks in recent years, authorities said these low-cost beds have been under-utilised.

According to government figures, 35 patients were referred to the two private hospitals for treatment during the 2017 summer peak, and there were 25 during the 2017-18 winter surge.

The Ombudsman said the referrals failed to ease the burden of the public healthcare system. "The small number of patients referred indicated that the existing referral mechanism failed to improve the utilisation rate of low-charge beds, and could hardly alleviate the strong demand for hospital beds in public hospitals," a statement said.

The watchdog has launched a direct investigation against the Food and Health Bureau, the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority. The Ombudsman is calling on members of the public to submit their views on the matter.