Subsidy plan for novel hospital

Sixty-five percent of patients visiting Hong Kong's first Chinese Medicine Hospital should be covered by government subsidies when the hospital opens in the second quarter of 2025.

Officials yesterday attended the launch ceremony of the hospital in Pak Shing Kok, which will be run under a public-private partnership model with Hong Kong Baptist University.

The project director of the Chinese Medicine Hospital Project Office, Cheung Wai-lun, said the government has sponsored many of the expenses, such as providing facilities and medical supplies, as well as sponsoring in-patient and out-patient services.

"Authorities will also provide funds to assist the hospital in launching training and clinical research," he said.

Cheung said the hospital will use Chinese medicine as the predominant mode of treatment, but it will be supplemented with Western medicine when necessary. The hospital will also provide 24-hour services.

Those who are suffering from chronic pain or recovering from a stroke could receive an integrated treatment of both Chinese and Western medicine, he said.

"We have developed relatively strong rehabilitation services at the hospital, which can assist the use of Chinese medicine in treating chronic illnesses," Cheung said.

But the hospital will not have an accident and emergency ward. It will also not offer general anesthesia operations, intensive care and labor and delivery services.

The hospital will have 400 hospital beds, including 250 beds in inpatient wards, 90 beds for day patients, 40 beds in pediatrics wards and 20 beds in the clinical trial and research center, as well as 70 consultation rooms for the outpatient clinics.

The hospital will have dozens of Chinese medicine practitioners, 20 to 30 nurses and several doctors trained in Western medicine.

It is expected to serve some 310,000 patients annually upon full commission.

Construction work begins tomorrow.

"We will take Chinese medicine education, research and services to new heights, and combine strengths and advantages from different areas so that the hospital will play a key role as the 'flagship' of Chinese medicine," said HKBU president and vice-chancellor Alexander Wai Ping-kong.

The spokeswoman of the university said the hospital will also offer training for Chinese medicine and pharmacy students from three universities - HKBU, the University of Hong Kong and Chinese University of Hong Kong.