Government continues to provide medical consultation to HA’s chronic disease patients living in Guangdong under COVID-19 epidemic
​The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government announced today (July 2) that the Special Support Scheme for chronic disease patients of the Hospital Authority (HA) residing in Guangdong Province will be continued until November 9 this year to enable patients to receive subsidised medical consultation at University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital (HKU-SZH) under the COVID-19 epidemic.
Due to the compulsory quarantine measures implemented during the COVID-19 epidemic, some Hong Kong residents staying in Guangdong Province are unable to travel back and forth between Hong Kong and the Mainland for scheduled medical consultations at the outpatient clinics under the HA as they had done so previously. To ensure that the health conditions of these patients can be effectively monitored and taken care of in a continued and co-ordinated manner, the Government announced the launch of the Special Support Scheme on November 10 last year and appointed HKU-SZH to provide subsidised follow-up consultations for patients with scheduled appointments at designated Specialist Outpatient Clinics (SOPC) or General Outpatient Clinics (GOPC) under the HA before July 31 this year, or until the lapse of the quarantine requirement in both Hong Kong and the Mainland (whichever is earlier). As of June 27 this year, HKU-SZH has scheduled about 22 800 medical appointments for eligible patients. About 19 100 attendances have received medical consultation.
Given that the compulsory quarantine measures in both Hong Kong and the Mainland are not yet relaxed completely, the Government will extend the Special Support Scheme to November 9 this year. Eligible persons may receive medical consultations at HKU-SZH before November 9, or until the lapse of the quarantine requirement in both Hong Kong and the Mainland (whichever is earlier). The scope of service and subsidy under the Special Support Scheme will remain unchanged, covering the majority of SOPC and GOPC services provided by the HA, namely anaesthesiology (pain clinic only); cardiothoracic surgery; clinical oncology; ear, nose and throat; eye; gynecology; medicine; neurosurgery; obstetrics; orthopaedics and traumatology; paediatrics, and surgery. Episodic illnesses, inpatient or day inpatient, and Accident and Emergency Department services are not included.
Details of the Scheme are available at the HA's website (www.ha.org.hk/goto/sss/en) or HKU-SZH's website (www.hku-szh.org/en/index.html). For enquiries, please call the HA (Tel: 2300 7070) between 9am and 6pm from Mondays to Fridays, excluding weekends and public holidays, or HKU-SZH (Tel: (+86) 0755-86913101) from 8am to 12.30pm and 2pm to 5.30pm on Mondays to Fridays, excluding weekends and public holidays.