When I attended the Spring Reception of the Hospital Authority on behalf of the Union on February 19, 2008, I was invited to grace the occasion by delivering some good wishes to the floor. I was last out of the four guests to grace the occasion. After the good wishes by representatives from the Government, the Community and the Patients, I was invited to uncover the printed words under the category of "Other Health Organizations" in the last portion of the lucky red placard in front of the audience. The four words uncovered by me were "¨ó§@¦@ºa" which was prepared by the organizer. Immediately I said the followings to the floor :-
"Since our wish words are placed at the bottom, it signifies that the Private Public Partnership (PPP) placed at the base is of utmost importance in balancing the Health Care System in Hong Kong while supporting the Healthcare of people, patients and policies from the Government. When we enter into this new year of the Rat, I would like to echo the wish of the Chairman of the Hospital Authority for more flexibility and speedy changes in the Private Public Partnership projects as compared to that of last year of the bulky Pig. As such, I would expect success of PPP projects like the pilot Tin Shui Wai North PPP Project..."
However, when I attended the HKDU CME study groups in Hong Kong West and Wan Chai respectively on February 21 and February 22, 2008, I felt astonished at the reluctance of HKDU members to support the concept of such Tin Shui Wai North PPP Project, not to say participate. Only one out of the 84 participating doctors on the two occasions indicated support. All the others just showed no interest at all, even at my suggested unrealistic offer at HK$ 1,000.00 per consultation in the project. What is the reason behind such inertness?
I found the answer on February 24, 2008.
On that day, we have invited Dr. Cheung Wai Lun, Cluster director of Hospital Authority in charge of PPP Projects to speak in our Sunday Afternoon Princess Margaret Hospital symposium. We were indeed thankful for him to introduce the plans of the Hospital Authority in the PPP programmes. Among other share care programmes, there were three projects highlighted in his presentation, which are :-
Furthermore, with the release of the Health Care Financial Consultation document in early March 2008, he said that there would definitely be more PPP projects launched to address the Reposition of the Public Health Care Sector defined by the Secretary for Health Care and Food last year in the document !¡±Building a Healthy Tomorrow!¡L, i.e., the public health care would provide mainly the following four areas of services: (1) Acute And Emergency Care; (2) For Low Income And Under-privileged Groups; (3) Illnesses That Entail High Cost Advanced Technology And Multi-disciplinary Professional Team Work; and (4) Training Of Health Care Professionals.
The main purpose of the PPP initiated by the Hospital Authority, I think, is to address the Sustainability of the public health care system, if not, the public health care service will be flooded with all the patients of Hong Kong. Other than that, reasons such as: (1) Maximizing Use of Private Sector Service Capacity & Capability; Enhancing Service Choice for Patients; (2) Contribute to the Development of Private Sector Practices and (3) Conducive to Market Dynamics & Cost Effectiveness as pointed out by Dr. Cheung could not convince us.
As for the Tin Shui Wai North Project, we are suggesting contract consultation fee from the Hospital Authority to be set at HK$ 200.00 per case. We are disappointed at the proposed consultation fee of HK$ 150.00 for each of the 6 + 4 consultations in the symposium. We put forward to Dr. Cheung that there is much inflation nowadays, the patient may come for more than one problem during each visit and we would expect more administrative and technical works, including computer works, to be done for each patient with chronic illness from the Hospital Authority. We are uncertain whether this project would be scrapped four years later when the Tin Shui Wai North Government Outpatient Clinic is ready. We would mostly end up with patients going back to the Hospital Authority failing the Family Doctor Concept and there would not be further geographical expansion of such project even though there are promises that there would be regular reviews. We are just guinea pigs! That is the reason behind the results of opinion survey of our members in the two aforesaid HKDU study group functions.
Within a few days, we have changed our Chinese New Year trip from Zhangjiajie to Panyu and Zhuhai (as reported on Pages xx in this Bulletin) for the severe snow storm on the mainland. In the coming future, we may have to act as Jurors as proposed by the Law Reform Commission of Hong Kong (please refer to the enclosed questionnaire on this subject). All and all, these show our great flexibility in handling matters. I hope the Authority would listen to our views and be more flexible in this new year of the Rat!
Dr. Yeung Chiu Fat Henry