Subsidy For HK Patients 'should Have Come Sooner'

A patients’ rights group on Tuesday described the launch of a scheme to subsidise Hong Kong people seeking medical treatment on the mainland as “better late than never”, pointing to the difficulty of those having to travel back to the SAR for their appointments in recent months.

It’s estimated that more than 30,000 Hong Kong people who are currently living across the border are unable to attend their scheduled consultations at public hospitals here because of quarantine rules that are in place to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

The government announced yesterday that it's offering a subsidy of up to RMB2,000 to allow these patients to see doctors at the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital.

Under the plan, they only have to pay RMB100 for each consultation there.

A spokesman for the Patients' Rights Association, Tim Pang, welcomed the scheme. But he also said the offer should have been made earlier.

He said some Hong Kong people who live on the mainland have had to travel back to the SAR for medical consultations amid the pandemic. "Actually they have waited for the plan for quite some time," Pang said.

But Pang also raised concerns about the quality of medical treatment being offered across the border. Some pointed to the use of mainland doctors as well as the different medical systems on both sides of the border.

"It's hard to (tell) whether Hong Kong patients stuck in Guangdong province will have confidence over the doctors at the Shenzhen hospital," he said.

He also said should the subsidy programme prove successful, it should be made permanent to benefit Hong Kong people living on the mainland.

“It is a national policy that we’re talking about... the Greater Bay Area integration... starting from medical services... may be it’s one of the areas that both the central and Hong Kong governments are looking for,” he said.