MIL Asia Pacific Publishing Engine

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

     Following is a question by Dr the Hon David Lam and a reply by the Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, in the Legislative Council today (January 21):

Question:

     It has been reported that the Hospital Authority (HA) has long faced a severe shortage of nursing staff, and there are no mandatory requirements for the nurse-to-bed ratio in public hospital wards. Furthermore, some frontline nurses are concerned that over the past year, HA’s gradual reduction in the number of locum nurses, personnel whose employment has been extended beyond retirement, as well as clinical preceptors, all of whom possess valuable clinical experience within the nursing grade, will have a significant impact on the training and clinical competence of newly recruited nurses, thereby increasing patient risks. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of the respective numbers of locum nurses, personnel whose employment has been extended beyond retirement, and clinical preceptors within HA’s nursing grade at the end of each of the past two years;

(2) of the respective ratios of nurses with over five years’ experience and those with three years’ experience or less in HA at present, and whether HA has formulated the relevant standard ratios; whether HA has plans to increase the ratio of nurses with over five years’ experience; if so, of the details of the plans; if not, the reasons for that; and

(3) of the ratio of HA’s clinical nurses to the number of hospital beds at present; whether HA has plans to formulate a target ratio and implementation plan; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

President,

     With our high-quality healthcare professionals and highly efficient healthcare system, Hong Kong boasts a number of world-leading health indicators. We are among one of the regions with the longest life expectancies (Note 1) and lowest infant mortality rate in the world (Note 2). The public current health expenditures in Hong Kong only accounted for 4.3 per cent (Note 3) of its Gross Domestic Product in 2023-24. Compared with other economies with a similar degree of population ageing, Hong Kong’s related expenditure ratio is among the lowest. On the other hand, we were able to provide over 90 per cent of the city’s healthcare services and achieve a high service quality on par with international standards, demonstrating the remarkable efficiency of our public healthcare system.

     Nevertheless, Hong Kong’s healthcare system is facing various structural challenges. With an ageing population and a surging prevalence of chronic diseases, quality and highly subsidised public healthcare services have attracted huge service demand, exerting immense pressure on the healthcare system. In light of the above, the Hospital Authority (HA) is actively implementing various measures to attract, train and retain manpower, while leveraging information technology to enhance efficiency.

     My reply to the question raised by Dr the Hon Lam is as follows:

(1) First of all, healthcare professions are the cornerstone of the local healthcare system. The Government has consistently invested heavily in enhancing the training quality, including increasing government-funded training places based on manpower situations and projections to meet the rising demand for healthcare services. To enhance manpower of local nurses, the number of relevant training places in institutions has steadily increased by nearly 60 per cent from about 3 200 in the 2016/17 academic year to about 5 000 in the 2024/25 academic year.

     As for human resources management, the HA introduced the policy of Extending Employment Beyond Retirement (EER) in 2021, allowing serving healthcare staff to extend their service up to the age of 65 after reaching the retirement age of 60. This enables the retention of experienced healthcare professionals to continue taking up clinical duties in public hospitals, thereby alleviating manpower pressure and supporting training and knowledge transfer. On the other hand, the HA has also established the Locum Office to actively recruit part‑time healthcare staff and adopt more flexible hiring strategies. In addition, to nurture junior nurses, the HA has strengthened its preceptorship programme by recruiting experienced nurses as preceptors to provide clinical guidance for junior nurses, facilitating them to get familiarised with the ward procedures and environment.

     Following the passage of the Nurses Registration (Amendment) Ordinance on July 26, 2024, the HA has launched a series of promotional activities to attract non-locally trained nurses (NLTNs) to join the HA. Moreover, the HA has also been actively collaborating with various non-local partners to roll out nurse exchange programmes. As at the end of October 2025, a cumulative total of 170 NLTNs had practised or participated in exchanges in the HA under Limited Registration or Special Registration pathways.

     These measures have begun to yield results. The attrition rate of full-time nurses has improved, with the 12-month rolling figure falling from a peak rate of 10.9 per cent as at end-March 2023 to 6.0 per cent as at end-October 2025. The number of HA nurses counting on full-time basis has increased from a low level of 28 865 as at March 2024 to 30 533 as at October 2025, recording an increase of 5.7 per cent in one and a half year. 

     With the gradual decline in the attrition rate and the increase in the number of full‑time nurses in recent years, the number of locum nurses, whose role is to fill short‑term vacancies, has therefore decreased. For the past two years (i.e. from end-October 2023 to end-October 2025), the numbers of locum nurses, EER staff and clinical preceptors in the HA’s nursing grade are set out in Annex 1. While the number of locum nurses slightly decreased from 1 450 to 1 372 in two years, the numbers of EER staff and clinical preceptors did not decrease as indicated in the introduction of the question, in fact, they increased. The number of EER staff increased from 729 to 1 090 and that of clinical preceptors rose from 149 to 181. In contrast with temporary or locum arrangements, full‑time nurses are able to provide more stable and continuous services within clinical teams, which is conducive to the continuity of patient care plans. The HA will continue to arrange temporary or locum nurses to support designated specialties having regard to service needs.

(2) As at end‑October 2025, the distribution of HA’s nurses by years of service is set out in Annex 2. The data shows that among the 33 683 nurses in the HA, 9 463 nurses were working for less than three years, representing 28.1 per cent of the overall nursing manpower; while 20 049 nurses had five years of service or more, representing nearly 60 per cent of the overall nursing manpower. There were 12 878 more experienced nurses with ten years of experience or more, representing 38.2 per cent of the overall nursing manpower. Most of these nurses serve on the frontline and assist in training less‑experienced nurses to facilitate professional succession. The Government is particularly thankful to nurses of public healthcare system who embody the spirit of Nightingale for their commitment, dedication and professionalism in taking care patients in the frontline amidst manpower pressure in the past. The HA will continue to implement various measures to recruit and retain nurses, with a view to ensuring service quality and facilitating professional succession. Meanwhile, the HA will also provide nurses with diversely structured and innovative training programmes, including providing more opportunities of simulation and specialty trainings, to enhance the development of professional nursing services.

(3) In order to meet clinical service demand and operation needs, the HA has also recruited 19 106 nursing supporting staff including ward assistants, patient care assistants and so on to support nurses for providing clinical care of patients. 

     As at end‑March last year, the HA had a total of 30 824 hospital beds. As healthcare staff supporting inpatient services in the HA also undertake other duties (such as specialist out-patient services), the demand for nursing manpower varies across different hospitals and inpatient specialties. Therefore, computing a ratio of number of staff supporting in-patient services to that of overall hospital beds separately is not appropriate. 

     Apart from closely monitoring manpower situations, the HA will continue to actively leverage information technologies, including areas like artificial intelligence, smart wards, smart clinics, smart support and digital workplaces, with a view to enhancing clinical and administrative workflows, and the effectiveness of resource utilisation.

     Thank you, President. 

Note 1: Average life expectancy at birth in 2024 is 82.7 for male and 88.2 for female.
Note 2: Infant mortality rate in 2024 is 1.7 deaths per 1 000 registered live births.
Note 3: Excluding expenditures relating to COVID-19.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region – 4

Following is a question by the Hon Judy Chan and a written reply by the Secretary for Development, Ms Bernadette Linn, in the Legislative Council today (January 21):

Question:
 
The Lands Department (LandsD) currently grants short-term tenancies through tendering or direct land grant for non-governmental organisations or social enterprises to use unleased and unallocated government land. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
 
(1) of the following information on complaints against short-term tenancy site operators received by the Government in the past five years: (i) the number of complaints (and their annual rates of changes), (ii) the reasons for complaints and (iii) the number of cases with follow-up actions taken;
 
(2) of the following information on (i) the number of sites newly granted under short-term tenancies in various districts in each of the past five years and the respective (ii) areas and (iii) uses of such sites involved, with a breakdown by land disposal method (i.e. tendering and direct land grant);
 
(3) of the following information on (i) the number of sites with their short-term tenancies terminated in various districts in each of the past five years and the respective (ii) areas involved and (iii) reasons for terminating the tenancies of such sites, with a breakdown by land disposal method (i.e. tendering and direct land grant);
 
(4) of (i) the number of sites with tenancies renewed by the same tenant upon expiry of the fixed term of the tenancies and the respective (ii) areas and (iii) uses of such sites involved in respect of short-term land tenancies managed by the LandsD in the past 10 years (set out by district); (i) the average renewal term and (ii) the longest renewal term of such sites with tenancies renewed by the same tenant, with a breakdown by land disposal method (i.e. tendering and direct land grant); and
 
(5) as there are views that the prolonged renewal of tenancies of some short-term tenancy sites by the same tenant has runs contrary to the spirit of short-term tenancy, whether the Government has conducted a review on the effectiveness in respect of short-term tenancy sites; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that, and whether it has plans to conduct such a review?
 
Reply:
 
President,
 
Under the prevailing land approval policy, the Lands Department (LandsD) may grant short term tenancies (STTs) by way of tender or direct grant to support various social and economic activities and bring rental revenue for the Government. In addition, if an application receives policy support, and is considered in compliance with statutory or administrative requirements upon consultation with the relevant departments, the LandsD may grant STT to a non-governmental organisation and a social enterprise at concessionary or even nil rent for community, organisation, or non-profit making uses. The LandsD is responsible for granting and managing STTs, with fixed terms normally ranging from one to five years, and not exceeding seven years. Upon expiry of the fixed term, STTs will usually be re-tendered for another fixed term, or renewed according to the circumstances. The Government announced in the 2025 Policy Address that it would handle the tenancy term of Government tenancies in more flexible ways, and provide tenancy of a maximum total tenure of 21 years through renewal, which will mainly benefit lands for economic use, in response to the market suggestion of facilitating business and investments by providing a longer tenancy term. The relevant measures will be rolled out within the first quarter of this year.
 
My reply to the various parts of the question raised by the Hon Chan is as follows:
 
(1) As the nature and the type of land involved in each complaint are different, the LandsD does not maintain statistics on cases involving solely STTs. In general, upon receipt of complaints relating to STT sites, the LandsD would carry out investigations, including site inspection, as soon as possible. If any breaches of tenancy conditions are confirmed, such as violation of the user restriction clauses, the LandsD would take follow-up action immediately, including the issue of warning letters requesting the tenants to rectify the breaches, and may, subject to the circumstances, terminate the tenancy in accordance with the tenancy conditions and take back the site.
 
(2) In the past five years, the number of STTs freshly granted by the LandsD for commercial, economic, or social uses is set out in Annex I. The relevant uses include fee-paying public car parks, education, social welfare, religious, recreation, shops, factories, container handling, outdoor or indoor storage, and shipyards.
 
(3) In the past five years, the number of STTs for commercial, economic, or social uses that were terminated and the area involved are set out in Annex II. In general, the major reasons for termination of STTs include taking back sites for long term development (such as public housing development, Government land sale programmes) and termination initiated by tenants on their own considerations. Besides, only a minority of STTs were terminated for breach of tenancy conditions. For example, there were only about four such cases in 2025.
 
(4) and (5) If the sites are still yet to be required for long term development a few years after the expiry of the fixed term of the STTs, the LandsD will normally re-tender the STTs, so as to allow other interested business operators in the market to have a fair opportunity in bidding for the sites, maintaining healthy competition. That said, direct grant STTs which are related to economic activities, with policy support, or special historical background, may be renewed quarterly upon expiry of the fixed term. The LandsD does not maintain statistics on the average term and the average area of the STT sites with tenancies renewed by the same tenant. According to the statistics maintained by the LandsD, among the direct grant STTs, there are some 1 800 cases with cumulative tenancy period exceeding 10 years, the majority of which (around 1 550 cases) fall within a few major categories, including STTs granted for relocation of businesses affected by public works (such as shipyards); STTs converted from Government land licence in early years (usually shops or workshops); and some sites for public utilities or franchise operation (such as franchised bus depot). Among them, the longest STT tenancy term through renewal is 60 years, where the site has been leased for the use of a bus workers’ canteen, to tie in with the operation of the adjacent bus terminal at Tsim Sha Tsui pier. 
 
The Government would take into account a number of considerations in examining whether a site should be granted by way of STT or land lease, including where the site may be available for certain uses only on a short term basis; where the site may be available for supporting certain uses on a long term basis but STTs would allow greater flexibility in changing STT users; and where the site may be available for supporting certain uses on a long term basis but STTs may better meet the development needs of certain economic activities as one-off premium payment would not be required. As regards views that certain STTs may have run for too long, as explained above, there are policy or historical reasons for the relevant STTs. On the other hand, there are views in the market in recent years that tenancies with longer term may facilitate business and investments, which is also one of the considerations for our suggestion to provide Government tenancies for at most 21 years. While we understand the Hon Chan’s concerns about fair competition, we should also take into account various considerations when considering the term of tenancies. When we grant new tenancies in future, we will take into account the relevant factors holistically and strike an appropriate balance.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region – 4

Following is a question by the Hon Yang Wing-kit and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, in the Legislative Council today (January 21):

Question:

The public healthcare fees and charges reform will take effect on January 1 this year, with the Hospital Authority (HA) simultaneously enhancing the medical fee waiver mechanism, which will increase the number of eligible beneficiaries from 300 000 to 1.4 million. To handle the additional fee waiver applications, HA implemented special transitional arrangements (transitional arrangements) during the transition period from January to March this year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) whether it knows the number of medical fee waiver applications received by HA following the implementation of the transitional arrangements, as well as the number of applications approved and the average processing time;

(2) given that under the transitional arrangements, HA currently only permits patients with appointments at public hospitals in January or February of this year to submit medical fee waiver applications two months prior to their appointments, whether the Government knows when HA will commence processing applications from patients with appointments scheduled after February of this year, as well as from members of the public attending without appointments;

(3) as patients requiring immediate or urgent treatment during the transition period, who cannot afford medical expenses at the public sector but cannot provide complete documentation for financial assessment, will be granted “conditional waivers” by HA for full or partial medical fees, whether the Government knows how HA determines the amount of “conditional waivers” for such individuals in the absence of the requisite supporting documents; and

(4) as HA has established dedicated teams to assist patients with matters relating to medical fee waiver applications, whether the Government knows the staffing establishment of the dedicated teams and the expenditure involved?

Reply:

President,

In consultation with the Hospital Authority (HA), the consolidated reply to the question raised by the Hon Yang Wing-kit is as follows:

The fees and charges reform for public healthcare aims to, through reforming the subsidisation structure, guide the public to make optimal use of healthcare resources, reduce wastage and abuse, and enhance healthcare protection for “poor, acute, serious, critical” patients on all fronts, thereby enhancing the sustainability of the healthcare system and strengthening the public healthcare system to cope with the challenges posed by an ageing population, increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, persistent strain on healthcare resources, etc., and serve as a safety net for all. The various measures under the reform have been successfully implemented from January 1, 2026.

As an essential component of the fees and charges reform for public healthcare, the HA has concurrently expanded its medical fee waiver mechanism. Apart from the some 600 000 people who have been benefiting from medical fee waivers both before and after the reform (namely Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients, Old Age Living Allowance recipients aged 75 or above and Level 0 Voucher Holders of the Residential Care Service Voucher Scheme for the Elderly), the number of other eligible low-income individuals is estimated to significantly increase from approximately 300 000 to about 1.4 million – around 4.6 times the previous number of beneficiaries. This enables limited healthcare resources to be more precisely directed to help “poor, acute, serious, critical” patients who are most in need, while ensuring that no patient is denied medical care due to lack of means.

To handle the additional medical fee waiver applications, the HA has implemented the following special transitional arrangements to ensure patients are notified of the assessment results in a timely manner:

(i) Patients with appointments at public hospitals in January or February 2026 could submit the required documentation two months in advance (i.e. in November or December 2025). Applications were pre-assessed, and eligible patients could receive medical fee waiver certificates before their follow-up appointments after the fees and charges reform for public healthcare took effect on January 1, 2026; and

(ii) Patients with financial difficulty who require immediate or urgent treatment but cannot provide complete documentation for financial assessment will be granted “conditional waivers” for full or partial medical fees during the transitional period from January to March 2026. Eligible patients need only submit relevant documents within three months to receive official medical fee waiver certificates upon passing the assessment.

(1) Since the implementation of the fees and charges reform for public healthcare, the number of medical fee waiver applications approved by the HA has significantly increased by multiple times compared with the past, demonstrating that the reform has effectively strengthened support for low-income families and underprivileged groups. Recent data shows that the HA receives an average of about 5 900 medical fee waiver applications daily. From early November 2025, when the HA began accepting applications from patients for medical fee waivers applicable after the fees and charges reform for public healthcare takes effect, up until January 19, 2026, the HA has approved 91 479 medical fee waiver applications (including 47 051 “conditional waivers”). This figure far exceeded the annual number of approximately 14 000 patients who were approved to receive medical fee waivers in the past. In other words, at least an additional 77 000 patients to date have already benefitted from the safety net under the enhanced medical fee waiver mechanism, from having to pay the fees and charges in full before the reform to now receiving fee waivers. According to approval records, approximately 82 per cent of applications were successfully approved on average, with some hospital clusters reaching over 90 per cent, with medical fee waiver certificates issued on the same day.

(2) The medical fee waiver mechanism aims to provide assistance to patients with financial difficulties and healthcare needs, ensuring they are not denied medical care due to lack of means. Financial assessment is therefore required and not everyone will be eligible. The HA must handle each application with due diligence for proper use of public funds. Patients also have the responsibility to provide complete, accurate, truthful and appropriate information for assessment and verification to help ensure that assistance reaches patients truly in need. While ensuring that no patient is denied medical care due to lack of means, it is also essential for the HA to uphold the principle of prudent use of resources to prevent the limited and precious public resources from being abused. In general, those who have financial difficulty and are eligible for medical fee waivers are from low-income families with relatively simple asset structure. The assessment process is not complicated.

To facilitate eligible patients in obtaining medical fee waiver certificates before their appointments, the HA advises patients to begin the application process approximately one to two months before their scheduled appointments. The HA is accordingly now accepting applications for medical fee waivers from patients with scheduled appointments within two months. Citizens with scheduled appointments beyond two months or without any appointments do not need to apply at this stage.

(3) Patients applying for “conditional waivers” need only sign a declaration form and state their approximate financial circumstances to be granted a “conditional waiver” for full or partial medical fees valid for three months. However, as aforementioned, “conditional waiver” is only a special flexible arrangement for patients who require urgent medical services but are unable to provide the required documentation for financial assessment. Therefore, such patients must still submit all the relevant documents for financial assessment within the validity period of the “conditional waiver”. Eligible patients will be issued an official medical fee waiver certificate, which will replace the conditional waiver certificate. If patients fail to submit the required documents within the three-month deadline or do not meet the relevant eligibility criteria, they will be required to settle all applicable fees (if any). To ensure the appropriate use and prevent abuse of healthcare resources, the HA will conduct regular random reviews of approved cases.

(4) The HA established the Designated Financial Assessment Team for Waiver Application (designated team) in November 2025, with an establishment of approximately 180 staff members. This team is deployed across the seven hospital clusters to assist in triaging and processing the medical fee waiver applications. The team is made up of Social Work Officers, Assistant Social Work Officers, Executive Officers and Executive Assistants. Most team members are stationed within the Medical Social Services Units. As of December 2025, the actual expenditure for hiring the staff for the designated team is approximately $9 million. The HA will closely monitor the volume of medical fee waiver applications and increase or redeploy personnel to the designated team as necessary to meet service demands in due course, ensuring efficient resource utilisation and timely processing of citizens’ medical fee waiver applications. 

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region – 4

The following is issued on behalf of the Independent Committee in relation to the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po:
 
The Independent Committee in relation to the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po announced today (January 21) that members of the public can make online reservations from 10am tomorrow to 10am on January 25 to pre-register for observing the direction conference.
 
The direction conference will be held at 10am on February 5 at the Multi-purpose Room, 3/F, City Gallery, 3 Edinburgh Place, Central. The Chairman of the Committee, Mr Justice David Lok, will give directions on the subsequent hearings. There will not be any presentation of evidence or examination of witnesses. The direction conference will be open to the public to observe. To allow more members of the public to observe the conduct of the conference, the proceedings will be broadcast simultaneously in transmission areas set up on the ground floor of the City Gallery and in the Lecture Theatre of the Hong Kong Central Library. Some members of the public will be arranged to observe the conference in these two areas. A total of about 400 seats will be available for the public, with separate arrangements for the media.
 
Individuals who wish to observe the direction conference are required to make an online reservation in advance through the submission of a pre-registration form (eform.cefs.gov.hk/form/ic-hearing/en/) from 10am tomorrow (January 22) to 10am on January 25. The Secretariat of the Committee will allocate seats on a first-come, first-served basis according to the system’s record of the time that the pre-registration forms are received.
 
Successful registrants will receive a “Confirmation of Successful Registration” issued by the Secretariat of the Committee by February 3: an SMS notification will be sent from the sender name “#IC-hearing”. If an email address is also provided during pre-registration, an email notification will be sent from hearing@ic-wangfukcourtfire.gov.hk. The pre-registration will be considered unsuccessful for those who have not received a notification by that date. Each person can only pre-register once. Duplicate registrations will not be processed.
 
The Chief Executive has established the Independent Committee in relation to the fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po to review the causes of the incident and related issues of the fire, and to make recommendations to prevent similar incidents from occurring again. The Committee formally commenced its work on December 19, 2025.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region – 4

Following is a question by the Hon Chan Hak-kan and a reply by the Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, in the Legislative Council today (January 21):

Question:

Currently, eight of Hong Kong’s 18 districts, including Tai Po and Sha Tin, have yet to set up District Health Centres (DHCs). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of the expenditure, staffing establishment, number of members, service capacity targets and achievement rates for each of the operational DHCs and DHC Expresses (DHCEs) in each of the past three years; the respective numbers of activities, seminars, health risk assessments and various programmes (such as the Chronic Disease Co-Care Pilot Scheme) organised by these DHCs for primary to tertiary disease prevention services, along with the respective number of participants;

(2) whether the Government will expedite the development of the Tai Po DHC which is scheduled for completion in 2031, promptly finalise the site selection and completion timetable for the Sha Tin DHC, and consider establishing additional DHCEs within public housing estates in Shatin district to enhance public accessibility; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(3) the Government’s projected reduction in the number of patients and expenditure involved in secondary and tertiary healthcare (namely hospital and specialist care, as well as specialised care) following the establishment of DHCs in various districts; whether performance indicators have been established in this regard?

Reply:

President,

     The Primary Healthcare Commission is progressively expanding the district health network with District Health Centres and District Health Centre Expresses (collectively referred to as DHCs) serving as hubs in accordance with the Primary Healthcare Blueprint (Blueprint), with a view to providing comprehensive, coherent and people-oriented multidisciplinary services, including chronic disease screening and management, family doctor pairing, nursing and allied health support, health risk assessment, community rehabilitation and health promotion. Prior to the commencement of District Health Centre operation, District Health Centre Expresses started to provide services of the same kind, enabling citizens to benefit earlier. The main differences between the two lie in the scale of facilities, site selection, and manpower allocation, while their functions are the same.

     My reply to the question raised by the Hon Chan Hak-kan is as follows:

(1) The expenditure of DHCs, including provisions for service contracts, site maintenance and rental cost, in the past three financial years is at Annex I. The information on staff establishment in 2025-26 is at Annex II. The cumulative number of attendances of all DHCs in Hong Kong exceeds 3 600 000, which includes health promotion/education, health risk assessment, screening, chronic disease management, with details at Annex III. 

     DHCs promote the “Family Doctor for All” concept. Following the introduction of the Chronic Disease Co-care Pilot Scheme (CDCC Pilot Scheme) in 2023, the number of new DHC members per year significantly increased from around 2 900 in 2019-20 to approximately 153 500 in 2024-25. To date, the cumulative membership of DHCs has reached 485 200. All DHCs attained the service volume targets in 2024-25.

     The screening of “three highs” under the CDCC Pilot Scheme has shown initial effectiveness. As at December 17 last year, around 185 200 citizens have enrolled in the CDCC Pilot Scheme. Among those, approximately 112 300 participants (i.e. about 60 per cent) have completed the screenings (Note 1), of which around 48 000 (i.e. about 40 per cent) have been diagnosed with prediabetes (Note 2), diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (HT) or dyslipidaemia. The latter participants can proceed to the treatment phase and will be subsidised by the Government to receive multidisciplinary follow-up in order to achieve the goal of “early identification and early treatment”.

(2) The DHCs have achieved comprehensive coverage across all 18 districts of Hong Kong since 2022. The Health Bureau will continuously review the site selection of DHCs, taking into account the service model, demographic structure and distribution, demand, etc., with a view to providing convenient and district-based primary healthcare services.

     The Tai Po District Health Centre Express currently operates eight service points. During the relief work of the Tai Po Wang Fuk Court fire, it instantly deployed nurses to support the medical stations at temporary shelters, and also co-ordinated over 500 volunteer healthcare professionals for the provision of onsite medical assistance. Subsequently, it arranged case management primary healthcare services for affected residents relocated to different districts together with all DHCs in Hong Kong, which include pairing with free consultation services provided by Chinese medicine practitioners, doctors, dentists and psychological support, as well as co-ordinating arrangements for follow-up appointments and medication refills at the Hospital Authority.

     The Government plans to construct a community health centre building at the ex-Jockey Club swimming pool site at On Pong Road, and designate it as the site for the Tai Po District Health Centre. The Government is currently reviewing the building facilities arrangement and service design in light of the feedback from the Tai Po District Council (DC) last September, with an aim to ensuring the proposal meets community needs and is cost-effective. When the facilities are finalised, the works department will review and plan the implementation timetable for the project. We will strive to implement the project as early as possible.

    The Sha Tin District Health Centre Express currently has two service points, and is anticipated to establish a third service point at Lek Yuen Health Centre in the second quarter of this year at the earliest. In the longer term, it is tentatively planned to establish the Sha Tin District Health Centre in the Joint-user Complex for Community Facilities at Shan Mei Street, Fo Tan. This project received the endorsement of the Sha Tin DC in October 2021. Prior to the establishment of the District Health Centre, the Government will closely monitor the service needs and explore the addition or expansion of service points.

(3) The district health network is a vital component within the primary healthcare system. During the medical support efforts following Wang Fuk Court fire, DHCs have demonstrated their pivotal role as a hub to provide personalised case management primary healthcare services for affected residents, offering convenient and comprehensive support. By providing timely, appropriate and proper care within the community, and co-ordinating access to public healthcare, private healthcare and multidisciplinary medical services such as Chinese medicine and dental service for residents in need, this not only alleviates pressure on hospital services, but also delivers people-oriented and compassionate support at the community level.

     As set out in the Blueprint, the development of primary healthcare may delay and alleviate the healthcare burden on secondary and tertiary healthcare brought about by an ageing population and thus slow down the rate of increase in healthcare expenditure in the long run.

     Taking the CDCC Pilot Scheme as an example, the preliminary analysis conducted by a local university research team indicated that the CDCC Pilot Scheme performed well in terms of health benefits and cost-effectiveness. Participants’ health conditions improved overall: after six months of participating in the Scheme, the average glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) level of DM patients dropped from 7.8 per cent to 6.8 per cent; while the average systolic blood pressure of HT patients decreased from 151 mmHg to 136 mmHg. Based on a modelled scenario of 200 000 participants, it was expected that the Scheme could prevent approximately 9 000 cases of cardiovascular diseases and 11 000 deaths, thereby gaining approximately 54 000 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and saving $2.7 billion in health expenditure. 

     Taking Phase I of the Breast Cancer Screening Pilot Programme (BCSPP) as another example, from 2021 to 2024, over 37 000 women aged between 44 and 69 at moderate and average risk have received breast cancer risk assessment. The BCSPP showed that 97 per cent of breast cancer cases identified through breast cancer screening were at early stages, i.e. stage I or stage II. The risk-based screening can enhance the recovery rate of breast cancer patients through early detection and treatment, and will also lower the medical cost.

     We will continue to advance primary healthcare initiatives and evaluate their effectiveness to ensure that primary healthcare development enhances public health and fosters the sustainable development of the entire healthcare system. Thank you, President.

Note 1: The CDCC Pilot Scheme screened for DM and HT in the initial phase (before March 28, 2025), and was later expanded to include blood lipid screening. Therefore, some of the participants who completed the screening were screened for DM and HT only, while the rest were screened for the “three highs”.

Note 2: Prediabetes with glycated haemoglobin level of 6.0 to 6.4 per cent or fasting plasma glucose level of 6.1 to 6.9 mmol/L.

Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region

     Following is a question by the Hon Lam Chun-sing and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, in the Legislative Council today (January 21):

Question: