Elderly Hongkongers will be able to use healthcare vouchers at 7 more hospitals and dental clinics in Greater Bay Area from third quarter at earliest

Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said on Monday the expansion of the voucher scheme was aimed at benefiting elderly city residents who were retiring in the bay area, as well as those living in Hong Kong who wanted the choice of using dentists across the border.

“We wish to cover the core of the Greater Bay Area and ensure service points are available for the elderly along the Pearl River Delta as well,” he said. “Apart from the two service points of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, we actively explored cities including Dongguan, Guangzhou, the Nansha cooperation zone and Zhongshan when choosing medical institutions.”

The new medical institutions are two branches of the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and Nansha, Zhongshan Chenxinghai Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Dongguan Tungwah Hospital and Shenzhen New Frontier United Family Hospital. Integrated services are offered at these facilities including dental care.

Two dental centres in Shenzhen will also be included in the scheme. They are the Shenzhen C.K.J Stomatological Hospital near the Lo Wu border checkpoint and the Dental Bauhinia Specialty Service Centre and its general care clinics near the Shenzhen Bay crossing.

Beijing unveiled its bay area blueprint five years ago to turn the region into a hi-tech powerhouse by 2035. The region of more than 86 million people covers Hong Kong, Macau and nine Guangdong cities.

The Elderly Health Care Voucher Pilot Scheme was first launched in 2009 and became a recurrent programme in 2014, aiming to provide financial incentives for people to opt for private medical services.