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Following is a question by the Dr Hon Kwok Ka-ki and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (November 4):
Question:
While the primary role of the Hospital Authority (HA) is to provide public healthcare services, some of its public hospitals, including the two teaching hospitals, namely the Queen Mary Hospital (QMH) and the Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH), also provide private patient services. HA has adopted the following principle in respect of private patient services: public funds should not be used to subsidise private patients. However, it has been reported that some mainlanders attended the private specialist outpatient (SOP) clinics of the two teaching hospitals for the purpose of buying very expensive self-financed drugs at relatively low prices and then reselling them for profit. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(1) the respective attendances of the various SOP services provided by QMH and PWH in each of the past five years as well as this year (as at September) and, among those figures, the respective private SOP attendances (set out in tables of the same format as the table in Annex 1);
(2) the total expenditures incurred in the past five years by the two pharmacies of QMH and PWH on procurement of drugs; in respect of the various SOP services provided by QMH and PWH, the average net expenditures for providing drugs to patients in each of the past five years and, among those sums, the respective net expenditures for providing drugs to private patients; the respective percentages of the aforesaid two types of expenditures in the total expenditures incurred by the pharmacies of the hospitals for procuring drugs (set out in tables of the same format as the table in Annex 2); if such records are not available, of the reasons for that;
(3) as it has been reported that private patients of SOP services under QMH and PWH only need to pay the at-cost price of the self-financed drugs plus an administrative charge of $50 for each drug item when they are prescribed with such drugs, the total amount of administrative charge collected from private patients in each of the past five years; since when that practice was implemented and the rationale for implementing such practice;
(4) whether HA will revise its current practice with a view to avoiding the situations of using public funds to subsidise private patients as well as using public funds to subsidise private patients who are non-local residents to buy drugs and then resell them for profit; if HA will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(5) whether HA has uncovered any cases of private patients reselling self-financed drugs for profit; if HA has, of the number of cases in the past five years, broken down by hospitals in which medical consultations were made?
Reply:
President,
My reply to various parts of the question raised by Dr Hon Kwok Ka-ki about the private patient service of the Hospital Authority (HA) is set out below.
(1) The table in Annex 3 sets out the overall and the private patient attendance at the specialist outpatient (SOP) clinics of the Queen Mary Hospital (QMH) and the Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) from 2010-11 to 2014-15.
(2) The table in Annex 4 sets out the total dispensing expenditure on drugs incurred by QMH and PWH as well as the expenditure on self-financed drugs dispensed to private patients and the percentage of such expenditure over the total dispensing expenditure on drugs incurred by these two hospitals from 2010-11 to 2014-15.
(3) to (5) The table in Annex 5 shows the total amount of administrative charge collected from private patients by QMH and PWH on drugs from 2010-11 to 2014-15.
To ensure that public funds will not be used to subsidise private patients' expenditure on drugs, HA has, in accordance with the cost-recovery principle, standardised since 2003 the charge on drugs for private patients as the at-cost price of drugs plus an administrative charge of $50 for each drug item.
HA will prescribe appropriate drugs in suitable quantity for patients according to their clinical conditions. There is currently no evidence received by HA indicating the existence of a situation where private patients resell their self-financed drugs for profit. Nevertheless, HA will closely monitor the situation of drug use by private patients and take appropriate measures when necessary to prevent private patient service from being abused.
Ends/Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Issued at HKT 17:39
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