Earlier preliminary registration for public dental clinics starting July: health minister

Starting from July, the preliminary registration arrangement for the general public sessions at dental clinics under the Department of Health will be adjusted to start from 8 pm the previous night, Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said. 

Citizens can then return to the dental clinic half an hour before their reserved sessions and verify their identity for the official registration, Lo continued, saying that the adjustment is to avoid having people line up outside the clinics late at night or traveling back and forth to the clinics. 

Under the current arrangement, the clinics commence registering patient information for the session at midnight, stopping when the number of preliminary registered patients exceeds the number of disc quotas for the respective session. 

The change came in a Legislative Council public accounts committee meeting on Tuesday after the latest Audit Commission report revealed some patients had been waiting as early as 5 pm the previous day for the preliminary registration. 

The report also found that the number of queue tickets decreased from 40,322 to 20,337 from 2018-19 to 2022-23, while the allocation rate increased from 92.3 percent to 99.2 percent.  

Lo then attributed the ax of queue tickets to the worsening shortage of dentists and noted that disease prevention measures were taken during the Covid era, adding that authorities will be implementing improvement policies. 

Lo continued that the Department of Health will strive to release the e-system that allocates queue tickets and register patient information online as soon as possible. The new system will also inform citizens of the remaining number of tickets in real time to ensure no quota will be wasted. 

As for Mona Fong Dental Clinic in Sai Kung, where patients have to return to the clinic at 11 am for the queue tickets and at 1.30 pm again for the session, Lo said the time of collecting the tickets and registration will be adjusted to 1 pm starting this Thursday. 

Meanwhile, Director of Health Ronald Lam Man-kin admitted it will be difficult for the overall number of queue tickets to rebound due to the shortage of dentists. 

As of last Wednesday, the department recorded 108 dentist vacancies, accounting for 30 percent of the overall attendances of public dentists. 

Yet, Lam referred to past experiences and pointed out that over half of the patients were not in emergent situations. He added that a new operation mode starting next year will see private clinics provide dental services and the quota will jump to some 60,000.