Tag Archives: China

     The Health Bureau (HHB) announced today (March 7) the extension of the Pilot Scheme for Supporting Patients of the Hospital Authority in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) till March 31 of next year in a bid to enable eligible patients of the Hospital Authority (HA) to continue receiving subsidised consultation services at the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital (HKU-SZH).

     To enable Hong Kong citizens to develop, live and reside on the Mainland, the Government launched the Pilot Scheme on May 10 last year making reference to the experience from the Special Support Scheme during the COVID-19 epidemic, so that patients with scheduled follow-up appointments at designated Specialist Out-patient Clinics (SOPCs) or General Out-patient Clinic (GOPCs) of the HA (eligible patients) can receive subsidised consultations at the HKU-SZH. By the end of this February, over 4 000 eligible patients have enrolled into the scheme. These patients only need to pay a consultation fee of RMB100 for each subsidised consultation at the HKU-SZH and the remaining fee is subsidised under the Pilot Scheme.

     The HKU-SZH conducted a survey among patients participating in the Pilot Scheme between the end of last year and early this year. The survey results revealed that nearly 60 per cent of the participating patients are elderly persons aged 65 or above. Moreover, 96 per cent of the patients have their habitual residence in Guangdong Province, with some 60 per cent currently residing in Shenzhen. Over 90 per cent of the participating patients were satisfied with the services delivered under the Pilot Scheme at the HKU-SZH and enjoyed the convenience of attending follow-up consultations on the Mainland that had spared them the tiring journeys between the Mainland and Hong Kong.

     Having considered the effectiveness of the Pilot Scheme in addressing the patients’ need for frequent follow-up consultations, the Government decided to extend the Pilot Scheme for one year. From April 1 this year to March 31 next year, eligible patients can continue to receive subsidised consultation services at the HKU-SZH.

     The Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, said, “The Government has all along been committed to taking forward medical collaboration in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area for providing greater convenience to Hong Kong citizens residing in or frequently travelling to and from GBA cities. Apart from this Pilot Scheme, the Government announced last month the inclusion of seven medical institutions in the GBA in the Elderly Health Care Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Scheme to offer eligible Hong Kong elderly persons additional options of service points for using the Elderly Health Care Vouchers in the GBA in the future. The pilot medical institutions are expected to gradually launch the relevant arrangements starting from the third quarter of this year.

     “In the light of the Chief Executive’s announcement of making optimal use of GBA healthcare services in the Policy Address, the HHB will identify healthcare services with pressing demand and of lower risks, and plan for strategic procurement of relevant services from suitable GBA medical institutions for Hong Kong citizens. The move aims to alleviate the pressure exerted on the public hospitals in Hong Kong and shorten the waiting time of citizens. We will make an announcement as soon as the details are finalised.”

     In order to provide more effective support to Hong Kong citizens utilising cross-boundary healthcare services in the GBA, new functions will also be added to the eHealth mobile application later on to enable citizens in need to receive more seamless and comprehensive healthcare services.

     “In the long term, the HHB will keep on monitoring closely the progress of various GBA medical collaboration initiatives. Apart from reviewing the effectiveness of arrangements such as the Pilot Scheme in due course, we will also keep up with the strengthening of medical collaboration with the Mainland, contributing to the national strategy of ‘Healthy China’,” Professor Lo stressed.

     The arrangements under the extended Pilot Scheme will remain as the status quo. Eligible patients will be required to pay a consultation fee of RMB100 for each consultation received at the designated outpatient clinic of the HKU-SZH (except for specified persons whose medical fees would be waived upon verification by the HA) while the remaining consultation fee will be subsidised by the Pilot Scheme, subject to a cap of RMB2,000. The relevant subsidy will be valid until March 31 next year. The scope of subsidised consultation services under the Pilot Scheme will continue to cover major SOPC and GOPC services provided by the HA, namely anaesthesiology (pain clinic only); cardiothoracic surgery; clinical oncology; ear, nose and throat; eye; gynaecology; internal medicine; neurosurgery; obstetrics; orthopaedics and traumatology (orthopaedics); paediatrics, and surgery. However, episodic illnesses, inpatient or day inpatient, as well as Accident and Emergency services are not included.

     All subsidies for current participating patients of the Pilot Scheme will expire on March 31 this year. As such, relevant patients should review their remaining subsidy balance and consider using it according to clinical needs by the end of March.

     Eligible patients with the intention to continue participating in the Scheme may make a consultation appointment as usual with the HKU-SZH through existing channels. However, they should have the declaration to confirm continued participation at the HKU-SZH completed before receiving any subsidised consultation service. For patients who wish to quit the Scheme and return to Hong Kong for follow-up consultations at the HA’s SOPCs or GOPCs, they may approach the HKU-SZH and the hospital will make referral for them to arrange follow-up appointments at the HA’s corresponding out-patient clinics according to their clinical needs.

     As for eligible patients who are new to the Pilot Scheme or those who have joined the Scheme but need to have their personal information updated, they may submit their application to the HKU-SZH from April 1 onwards.

     Details of the extension of the Pilot Scheme will be uploaded to the website of the HKU-SZH later for public reference. For enquiries, citizens may also call the HA (Tel. No.: 2300 7070; Service Hours: 9am – 6pm, Mondays to Fridays, except public holidays) or the HKU-SZH (Tel. No.: (+86) 0755-86913101; Service Hours: 8am – 12.30pm and 2pm – 5.30pm, Mondays to Fridays, except public holidays). read more

     Regarding a report released by the Ombudsman today (March 7) on its direct investigation into the effectiveness of 1823 in handling complaints and enquiries, the Efficiency Office (EffO) is pleased to note that the Ombudsman recognises the excellent efficiency of 1823 in handling public enquiries. 1823 achieved first-call resolution at 99 per cent for telephone enquiries, which is in line with its aim of providing a one-stop enquiry service. The Ombudsman also affirms 1823’s positive attitude during the epidemic in actively taking measures to improve its services and providing advice to departments to handle enquiries more effectively. A spokesperson for the EffO said that 1823’s service level had been affected by the epidemic and the need to support extra anti-epidemic related hotlines. As society moved towards a full resumption to normalcy, 1823’s services had generally returned to normal in 2023, with 90 per cent of the calls handled.

     The EffO has committed to continuously improving the performance of 1823 over the years. 1823 has already implemented or will implement seven recommendations mentioned in the report. The EffO accepted the remaining recommendations and would actively follow up on them. In summary, the main improvement measures of 1823 in different areas include:
 

• For handling of complaints (including requests for government service), in accordance with the Ombudsman’s recommendation, the EffO would systematically sort out unresolved cross-departmental complaints involving district issues and submit a report to the Task Force on District Governance (TFDG), chaired by the Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration, for deliberation with relevant departments, and providing guidance. In addition, the EffO will develop a mechanism and formulate associated guidelines for submission of cases to the District Officer or the TFDG in a systematic, appropriate and timely manner, as well as regularise the escalation mechanism.

• For enhancing operational efficiency, 1823 has launched a series of projects since 2023 that use new technologies to enhance operational efficiency. Among them, 1823 had completed the telephony system upgrade project at the end of 2023. 1823 is also expanding its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot for enquiry service in answering frequently asked questions under its service scope; and conducting a project to pilot the use of generative AI technology to assist colleagues in drafting responses to written enquiries from citizens. In addition, 1823 will apply AI speech-to-text technology to transcribe citizens’ voicemail messages into text so as to enhance the handling efficiency; and provide self-service to citizens for receiving the requested information by short message service (SMS).

• For strengthening of collaboration and communication between departments and 1823, 1823 will continue to provide advice to participating departments on their information dissemination and strengthen collaboration and communication with departments in accordance with the Ombudsman’s recommendations. 1823 will also discuss and formulate backup plans and contingency measures with relevant departments for addressing unexpected and emergency situations.

• For better use of data for analysis, 1823 will continue to follow the existing arrangement to provide case data to departments and submit various case statistics and analysis reports to participating departments so that they can combine with their own operational data as well as enquiry and complaint data collected from other channels for comprehensive analysis. In order to make better use of the data collected from daily operations, 1823 will further consolidate the case data collected for comprehensive analysis by policy bureaux/departments to further improve government services.

The following is issued on behalf of the Office of The Ombudsman:      The Ombudsman, Ms Winnie Chiu, today (March 7) announced the completion of a direct investigation into the effectiveness of the 1823 service in handling … read more

The following is issued on behalf of the Office of The Ombudsman:      The Ombudsman, Ms Winnie Chiu, announced at a press conference today (March 7) the completion of a direct investigation into the regulation of licensed s… read more

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

     The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) wishes to alert members of the public to a press release issued by Bank of Singapore Limited relating to a fraudulent website, which has been reported to the HKMA. A hyperlink to the press release is available on the HKMA website.
      
     The HKMA wishes to remind the public that banks will not send SMS or emails with embedded hyperlinks which direct them to the banks’ websites to carry out transactions. They will not ask customers for sensitive personal information, such as login passwords or one-time password, by phone, email or SMS (including via embedded hyperlinks).
      
     Anyone who has provided his or her personal information, or who has conducted any financial transactions, through or in response to the website, should contact the bank using the contact information provided in the press release, and report the matter to the Police by contacting the Crime Wing Information Centre of the Hong Kong Police Force at 2860 5012. read more