Hong Kong’s first online healthcare dispute resolution platform, the upgraded website of the Healthcare Dispute Resolution Centre (HDRC), was launched on Friday, providing a time- and energy-saving channel to resolve medical conflicts.

The platform has long-term goals of handling cross-boundary cases and providing services overseas, its operators said at a launching ceremony on Friday.

The new HDRC website has established strategic cooperation with the Hong Kong International Mediation Centre (HKIMC) and with eBRAM, two Hong Kong‑based international online dispute resolution service providers, to jointly provide confidential mediation and arbitration services for patients and medical service providers in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

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The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s Medical Council received and processed more than 8,700 medical complaints from 2000 to 2025, according to government data. The average time taken from case receipt to final conclusion stood at 27 months.

At the ceremony, HDRC Chairman Samuel Kwok Po-yin said the platform’s establishment has built a new bridge of communication between healthcare providers and patients. Medical disputes often escalate into protracted litigation, consuming valuable public resources and worsening conflicts, he said.

By leveraging expertise of medical and legal professionals, and eBRAM’s legal technology, the new platform can reduce disputes’ impact on doctor-patient relationship and ensure healthcare system functions in the most harmonious way, Kwok said.

HKIMC Chairman Francis Law Wai-hung said that medical disputes often involve complex professional knowledge. Mediation, by facilitating effective communication, can help prevent conflicts from becoming more complicated and dragging on for extended periods.

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He said that Hong Kong has a more clearly defined framework in mediation than many other regions. With the new online platform, Hong Kong's professional expertise in meditation can be further extended to the rest of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the vast Chinese mainland, and even the other parts of the world, Law said.

Ko Wing-man, a member of the city’s Executive Council, said, "We have long hoped for such a mechanism to emerge."

Ko, the city's former health chief, said that the medical sector has long strived to ease tensions between doctors and patients, but the power of any single individual is inherently limited. By partnering with two authoritative mediation institutions, the platform is expected to make a meaningful contribution to both doctor‑patient relationships and social harmony in Hong Kong, he said.

Established in 2024, the HDRC is a local nonprofit organization dedicated to resolving healthcare disputes by ways of mediation or arbitration.

Contact the writer at atlasshao@chinadailyhk.com