The pandemic has prompted policies that facilitate sharing of medical records, claims of subsidies by HK patients living on the mainland. Li Bingcun reports.

In this undated photo, Ronald Cheng Pang-cheung, a Hong Kong entreprenuer based in Shenzhen, takes his 91-year-old grandmother for a walk near their home in Tseung Kwan O. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Ronald Cheng Pang-cheung’s wheelchair-bound 91-year-old grandmother, with a history of chronic illnesses, had to brave a mandatory 14-day quarantine in Hong Kong in early May after taking a six-hour car ride to the special administrative region for her regular medical consultations.

She would have been spared the hassle of having to cross the boundary had the SAR government implemented a ground-breaking initiative earlier that allows Hong Kong residents living on the Chinese mainland to seek subsidized medical services at the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital in Shenzhen’s Futian district.

The program, announced on Sept 15, came amid the coronavirus pandemic that has brought travel between Hong Kong and the mainland to an abrupt halt since February. Medical practitioners hailed the move as a major step in addressing some of the deep-rooted issues in cross-boundary medical services and ushering in a new phase in future collaboration.

The HKSAR government announced a new initiative to offer subsidized medical services to Hong Kong residents living on the mainland, in a bid to ease the problem for Hong Kong residents living in Guangdong in need of medical treatment in Hong Kong’s public hospitals but face challenges in returning to Hong Kong for follow-up consultations

Cheng’s grandmother was driven from their apartment in northern Shenzhen’s Longgang district to their Hong Kong home in Tseung Kwan O. The journey, which normally takes less than two hours, took about six hours due to the extra rules and precautionary measures in place at the checkpoints during the public-health crisis.   

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Although the pandemic in Hong Kong has stabilized in the past few weeks, having a vulnerable elderly person exposed to the crowd while queuing up at the checkpoints remains risky.

“As long as there’s a second choice, we wouldn’t have made the trip,” said Cheng, a Hong Kong entrepreneur based in Shenzhen.

Due to the quarantine requirement enforced in Shenzhen and the SAR, up to 38,000 Hong Kong residents living in Guangdong province and in need of medical treatment in Hong Kong’s public hospitals have encountered additional challenges in returning to Hong Kong for follow-up consultations.

To solve the problem, the SAR government announced the new initiative to offer subsidized medical services to Hong Kong residents living on the mainland through the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, with the Hong Kong government shouldering expenditure incurred.

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The University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, which opened in 2012, is one of the university’s two teaching hospitals. Built and funded by the Shenzhen municipal government, it’s described as the first “Hong Kong-style” public hospital in Shenzhen and a part of the overhaul of the mainland’s healthcare system.

The SAR government applied to the Legislative Council Finance Committee on Friday for a HK$103.8 million (US$13.4 million) special fund for the program.

Although the details have yet to be revealed, Hospital Authority Chief Executive Tony Ko Pat-sing said the allowances for Hong Kong patients under the program will be equal to those they enjoy in Hong Kong.

This undated photo shows the entrance of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital in Shenzhen. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Cooperation breakthrough 

He said patients may also be allowed to download their personal medical information through Hong Kong’s Electronic Health Record Sharing System so that mainland doctors can access their health records.

Cheng hailed the steps taken to address the problems created by the pandemic as a breakthrough in cross-boundary medical services, as offering subsidies and the mutual sharing of patients’ medical records are unprecedented.

He believes that after the initiative is implemented, many Hong Kong patients like his grandmother would be spared the inconvenience they had encountered in the past.

Chan Sao-iam, executive director of the Mainland Consultation Services Centre at the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, welcomed the move as good news for Hong Kong patients who cannot return to the SAR for treatment during the pandemic.

For those who’re unable or unwilling to be quarantined in Hong Kong, they could only rely on mainland doctors or the FTU’s medical delivery services.

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According to Chan, the FTU has helped to deliver medicines to more than 22,000 Hong Kong patients on the mainland during the pandemic. The patients said that Hong Kong hospitals have refused to prescribe medication since July for those who haven’t been attended to by doctors for a long time.

For patients seeing mainland doctors, there’ve been various problems due to the different medical systems between Hong Kong and the mainland, particularly the lack of medical insurance and the inability to share patients’ medical history.

Ko Shing-chu — a 75-year-old Hong Kong resident in Shenzhen — faces the same dilemma. He used to be prescribed medicine for his heart problem by Hong Kong’s public hospitals, but after undergoing coronary surgery on the mainland, he needs a new type of medicine to help in his recovery.

The pandemic has not hindered cross-boundary collaboration as some people thought, but instead, it has deepened ties, said Kevin Wong Kiu-fung, a surgeon at North District Hospital in Sheung Shui

But as Hong Kong hospitals refuse to offer the new medicine, Ko needs to spend HK$800 a month getting the medicine in Shenzhen and having medical checks — eight times more than what he would pay in Hong Kong. So far, his medical bills on the mainland have come up to about HK$160,000.

Sharing medical records

Ko said the sharing of medical records will enable mainland doctors to better assess the condition of their patients. He explained that due to problems like memory and language, it’s hard for Hong Kong patients to explain their medical history to doctors clearly and comprehensively.

Kevin Wong Kiu-fung, a surgeon at North District Hospital in Sheung Shui, said the initiative represents a major step forward in cross-boundary medical collaboration.

He said it’s hard to see a breakthrough amid the pandemic although the government has been mulling subsidizing Hong Kong patients on the mainland and the sharing of medical records for a long time.

This shows that the pandemic has not hindered cross-boundary collaboration as some people thought, but instead, it has deepened ties, said Wong.

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He cited the successful completion of the Universal Community Testing Programme for COVID-19 that involved about 6,000 Hong Kong medical workers, including himself, and some 600 mainland counterparts, saying it has offered valuable experiences for future collaboration in pandemic prevention.

Medical institutions on both sides could seize the opportunities created by the pandemic and explore further innovative collaboration, such as the application of telemedicine that enables medical consultations to be carried out through online video calls, Wong said.

Contact the writer at bingcun@chinadailyhk.com