All Hongkongers holding identity cards or aged under 11 are eligible to use the city’s public hospitals, health chief Lo Chung-mau has said as lawmakers raised concern that Hongkongers based overseas were returning to the city for medical treatment.
“If a person holds a Hong Kong identity card but is barred from public hospitals, this would cause serious issues. We need to approach this matter more cautiously,” Lo said in Cantonese at the legislature on Wednesday, adding that it was difficult to define what counted as “moving abroad.”
Pro-establishment legislator Priscilla Leung had asked if the government complied data on how many overseas Hongkongers visited public hospitals, and whether the limited manpower could cope with them.
Leung said there were reports that many Hong Kong residents who had emigrated returned to the city for medical treatment, including those suffering potentially catastrophic illnesses such as cancer.
Dennis Lam, an ophthalmologist, asked if the government would consider amending its policies concerning the eligibility of overseas Hongkongers for public hospital services.
In response, the health chief said there was no requirement for public hospital users to be ordinarily resident in Hong Kong, and the government had not compiled any data about patients’ residency.
Hong Kong allows its residents who have obtained foreign citizenship to remain Chinese citizens, which means they can keep their Hong Kong identity cards and passports.
Sing Tao reported earlier this year on overseas Hongkongers seeking medical treatment in public hospitals, including some who moved abroad many years ago.
While some lawmakers questioned whether Hong Kong should provide welfare for those who emigrated several years ago, other lawmakers urged care in defining “moving abroad” since people now had high mobility, according to the report.
Tackling manpower shortage
Hong Kong’s medical manpower shortage surged in 2020 as large numbers of people began to leave the city. In 2021-22, the attrition rate of doctors in public hospitals was 8.1 per cent.
Lo said on Wednesday the government had introduced various measures to retain existing staff and attract more, including enhancing the recruitment of local graduates, re-hiring retired staff, and recruiting non-locally trained doctors and part-time staff.
He said that with these new measures, the attrition rate of doctors in public hospitals had dropped to 5.3 per cent in 2023-24, with the number of doctors increasing by 260.
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