HK's total health expenditure reaches HK$284.1 billion, HK$39k per capita

Hong Kong's Total Health Expenditure (THE) reached HK284.1 billion in 2022–23, with 61 percent being public funds.

According to the annual Hong Kong's Domestic Health Accounts released by the Health Bureau on Tuesday, the recurrent expenditures accounted for 91.6 percent, which is around 10 percent of the local GDP.

Up to 61.2 percent of the total health expenditure involved public funds, with spending up to HK$173.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of approximately HK$28.6 billion, or an increase of roughly 20 percent.

Among the recurring public health expenditures, the most were incurred at hospitals at 56 percent, followed by residential long-term care facilities at 10.2 percent.

If divided by health care functions, the majority of the public current health expenditure was inpatient curative care and outpatient curative care, standing at 25.4 and 19.6 percent, respectively.

On a per capita basis, each patient spent approximately HK$39,000 in 2022/23, of which approximately HK$24,000 is public expenditure, which also accounts for approximately 61.2 percent of the total expenditure.

The full DHA 2022–23 has now been uploaded to the Health Bureau website.