HK hospitals suffering from bad debts, with more than half the culprits being non-residents
January 26, 2014 Leave a comment
Hospitals suffering from bad debts
Hilary Wong
Friday, January 24, 2014
The Hospital Authority says it has incurred bad debts totaling HK$49 million, with more than half the culprits being non-residents.
It said in its annual report that absconding pregnant woman from the mainland alone were responsible for HK$10 million of this amount.
Secretary for Health Ko Wing-man said he is greatly concerned as the number of bad debts has increased sharply from the previous year.
“We took stringent measures to prevent bad debts, including deposits by non-local patients,” he said.
Ko admitted it will be hard to recover the money if the patients had left Hong Kong as this will require additional resources.
“The deposit system is used when patients are referred to a hospital,” he said.
“But if a pregnant women arrives at the accident and emergency ward we have to provide medical services on humanitarian grounds and charge the patient later.”
He said the government and the authority will work together on prevention measures and he asked the public to understand the difficulties encountered on this issue.
Meanwhile, Ko said there are two peak periods of seasonal influenza, at the end of a calendar year and again in spring.
He said the Centre for Health Protection has been monitoring the incidence rate of influenza by examining samples from clinics or hospitals and collecting information about the patients who had upper respiratory infection symptoms similar to influenza.
Ko said the number of influenza cases this year is higher than the previous two years. He said since the outbreak of H1N1 in 2009, it had became one of the main viruses found in seasonal flu, accounting for 40 percent of all tested samples.
“With the flu season peaking in March and April we need to prepare to face any pressure to the medical system.”
Ko said despite the low death rate, flu can cause complications. “We still need to carefully monitor the situation so no conclusion can be made now.”
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