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Opinion
Hong Kong can’t afford to outsource its healthcare to mainland China
Patients shouldn’t have to leave the city to get the care they need. Fortunately, Hong Kong can turn the situation around if it acts now
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Dr Ken Ip is an assistant professor specialising in business innovation and entrepreneurship at Saint Francis University, Hong Kong.
In recent years, Hongkongers have developed a new habit: going north for their medical check-ups. A 2024 survey found nearly one in three residents had sought medical care in mainland China. The reasons are as predictable as they are troubling: shorter queues, cheaper drugs and upfront prices.
If this trend sounds like a temporary release valve for a stressed system, think again. What we’re seeing isn’t a convenient side option; it’s an unofficial outsourcing of healthcare. Left unchecked, it may well hollow out the very system we’ve spent decades building.
Hong Kong’s public hospitals are, in some respects, victims of their own success. We boast one of the world’s highest life expectancies – a medical marvel, yes, but also a demographic time bomb. Ageing residents mean skyrocketing demand for healthcare. Add a chronic shortage of medical staff, and you get a system where booking a specialist is like winning the quota for a popular school.
Of course, private hospitals offer another route, if you’ve got the wallet for it. For many families, the price tag makes private treatment feel less like healthcare and more like luxury retail.
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