The Hospital Authority on Thursday dismissed as "untruthful" recent allegations that patients had stopped collecting medications following the implementation of the public healthcare fees and charges reform.
The authority said the reform aims to guide optimal use of healthcare resources, reduce wastage, and enhance protection for "poor, acute, serious, critical" patients, based on the principle of co-payment by those who can afford it and those with mild conditions. The government maintains a high level of subsidisation of up to 95 percent for public healthcare services.
In the first quarter of 2026, the rate of unfilled prescriptions was 2.4 percent, similar to the 2.2 percent for the whole of 2025. Of the unfilled prescription records for the first two months of 2026, about 72 percent arose from doctors making prescriptions for complete medical records where patients did not actually need to collect medications after confirming they had sufficient supply at home.
Following the reform, demand for "as needed" medications was about 7 percent lower than the same period in 2025, the authority said.
The HA emphasised that no patient will be denied medical care due to lack of means. As of March 31, over 220,000 applications for medical fee waivers have been approved – 16 times the approximately 14,000 patients granted waivers in the whole of the previous year. In addition, 2,953 applications for the annual spending cap of HK$10,000 have been approved.
The HA called on the public to assist those facing financial difficulties to apply for fee waivers.
