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Date: March 10, 2003 (Monday)
Time: 12:00 noon to 14:00 pm
Venue: Seminar Room 5, LG 1, Laboratory Block, Faculty of Medicine
Building, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam
Health care financing problem has
always been a thorny but imperative issue to which an effective
response has long been overdue. The unmistakable trend of an aging
population together with a low long-term growth rate of the Hong
Kong economy dictate that additional funding resources have to be
in place to keep the public medical quality from deteriorating.
In order to relieve the financial stress of public system, it is
critical to implement sound long-term health care financing measures
and restore the balance between public sector and private sector.
At present, there is very little
interface between public and private hospital system save for some
piecemeal family practice training (in Hong Kong Sanatorium) and
a private eye clinic in Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital. Some community
and public hospital joint management programmes are not running
well because of price differential. Useful information exchange
however is starting to build up between private and public sector
especially the transfer of hospital record.
The Medical Reform Policy Group of
SynergyNet had produced a report entitled "Re-invigorating
the Hong Kong Health Care System" in December 2002 to discuss
in part how to solve the problem of public private imbalance. The
group proposes that the private medical sector may collaborate and
cooperate with the Universities in uplifting its competitiveness.
The strong brand-named reputation of Universities as the only training
centres in Hong Kong will be of great help in boosting up the confidence
of general public to the private medical services. It is suggested
that university departments be allowed to run training centres in
private hospitals so that graduates who cannot find training posts
in the public system (because of lack of funding) can find jobs
there. Private hospitals can provide funding for academic professors
to purchase expensive equipment to conduct researches, whereas public
system can free up more funding for direct patient care instead
of research and training. The HKSAR government may consider outsourcing
certain services to the private sector and assist private hospitals
and private doctors in forming an association to standardize the
fee structure and make it highly transparent. Besides, by allowing
senior staff working in the public sector to work part time in the
private sector will certainly help relieve the Hospital Authority's
salary expense, draw affluent patients from the public sector to
the private sector, and eventually, help senior staff to make up
their minds to move to the private sector.
Private hospitals in the US and other countries have long taken
up a crucial role in medical research and training and are attracting
patients seeking medical excellence from other countries. Can the
private sector in Hong Kong contribute towards a similar role?
The seminar will outline how the
integration of the public and private medical sector will lead to
an enhancement in medical research and training, an improvement
and expansion of the private medical sector, and ultimately freeing
up more resources to be directed to those who are in need of subsidy.
Dr Louis Shih is Vice-Chairman of
SynergyNet and Chairman of the Medical Reform Policy Group of SynergyNet.
The Medical Reform Policy Group spearheads SynergyNet's efforts
in studying all aspects of health care in Hong Kong and making timely
and practical recommendations.
Press
release - Chinese 
Press release - English
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