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Hong Kong hospital authority will take measures to give patients more choices of hospital and healthcare services by fee adjustment, Hong Kong officials said Monday.

At the 13th Hospital Authority (HA) Convention, which opened here Monday, Hong Kong Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow said that an appropriate public hospital fee adjustment is required to encourage healthy lifestyles and rational use of health care services, and to discourage inappropriate, unnecessary or duplicated services.

Chow said this is the principle of any fee revision, adding that services will continue to be abused at current fee levels.

"So, we need to raise the fees. We want to make sure that this will encourage people to, first of all, have a healthy lifestyle and look after their own health. Secondly they can choose the most appropriate care under family doctors when they have milder ailments. They only go to the emergency departments when they have a real emergency situation. We would also discourage people from long-term stay in hospital simply because it is cheaper than staying at home," Chow said.

"It should be kept in mind that fees should be maintained at affordable levels after adjustment, and be capped for patients who have chronic illness, which requires long-term care," he added.

Chow said the Hospital Authority's private services should be developed as benchmark services and complementary to other private services.

However, he called on private doctors and hospitals not to hastily raise their fees, and to make fees and service standards more transparent and predictable.

"Experience has shown that doctors and healthcare professionals who are conscientious, caring and ethical can always survive and thrive. The government will consider, in the longer term, a monitoring and licensing system for healthcare service settings, premises and organizations, so that both private and public services can be subject to the same level of public scrutiny. It would also imply that private services, which might then be eligible for public subsidies and contracts," Chow said.

Chief Executive of Hospital Authority of Hong Kong Shane Solomon said at the convention that Hospital Authority has many patients already with the capacity and willingness to pay for these additional services choices.

According to Hospital Authority data, 23 percent of HA hospital users have medical insurance or subsidy, and 10 percent, or 200, 000 patients, have monthly income of more than 35,000 Hong Kong dollars (about US$4,516) each.

Solomon emphasized that more choices of hospital and health care are needed. The expansion of the private sector will both relieve demand on HA and shorten waiting times for discretionary areas, like elective surgery.

Solomon added that more work is needed to be done on what extra choices should be offered in HA and in expanding choice for patients. HA would need to be mindful of the wider community impacts and have adequate community debate, but the focus should remain on expanding choice for HA's existing patients through boththe private and public hospital systems.

"If more people can choose to contribute to the cost of their own care in the public hospital, then HA's own scarce resources can be directed to lower income patients who are waiting a long period of time for elective surgery and only have the choice of HA," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 9, 2006)