'Elderly Health Care Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Scheme' to add seven medical institutions

Five additional hospitals and two new dental service centers have been added to the Elderly Health Care Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Scheme to provide extra service points to Hong Kong's elderly for using their vouchers.

The Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said Monday that some 88,000 eligible elderly living in GBA could redeem their healthcare vouchers in the seven new medical institutions starting the third quarter of this year.

The five hospitals included the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and its Nansha division, Zhongshan Chenxinghai Hospital, Dongguan Tungwah Hospital, and Shenzhen New Frontier United Family Hospital.

Hongkongers can also use their vouchers for dental services at Shenzhen C.K.J Stomatological Hospital in Luohu and Dental Bauhinia Specialty Service Center and General Care Center in Shenzhen.

Currently, the elderly can use the vouchers to pay for outpatient healthcare service fees at two service points operated by the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital at its hospital and at the Huawei Li Zhi Yuan Community Health Service Center.

Lo added that the health authorities will not set any key performance indicator on the number of healthcare voucher users in GBA.

He said that the original intention of the plan was to facilitate people living in the Greater Bay Area and Hong Kong by providing choices, not forcing people with vouchers to travel to GBA for medical help.

The Deputy Secretary for Health, Eddie Lee Lik-kong, said that healthcare vouchers only apply to designated institutions and public and private medical institutions are strictly supervised by mainland units. Institutions are not allowed to increase fees due to health care vouchers.