Subsidised body checks, cancer screening and flu jabs for all Hongkongers under think tank Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre’s HK$7.8 billion proposal
- Proposal released ahead of opening of city’s first district health centre in Kwai Tsing in two weeks
- More than half of population went without a family doctor and over 60 per cent did not have regular health check-up in 2014/15, official data shows
Free or subsidised body checks, cancer screening and vaccination services that would cost the government about HK$7.8 billion (US$1 billion) a year should be provided at Hong Kong’s new community health centres, a think tank proposed on Tuesday.
The proposal, one of four main recommendations from the Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre after a year-long study, was released two weeks before the city’s first district health centre was expected to open officially in Kwai Tsing.
The research centre, formed in 2006 by close allies of then Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, also suggested that a publicly funded independent authority to oversee primary health care services be set up in the long run.
“Public health is public wealth,” said Dr Donald Li Kwok-tung, director of the research centre and a family medicine specialist in private practice.
“It’s important for citizens to realise they should be responsible for their own health. It’s more important for the government to take the lead and upgrade primary health care services.”
