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The Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, today (April 1) met medical staff of public hospitals to exchange views on undue stress on local obstetrics and neonatal services arising from the increasing number of pregnant Mainland women giving birth in Hong Kong.
Dr Chow expressed his deep concern over the rising trend of babies born in Hong Kong by Mainland mothers in recent years, the number of which rose from 13,000 in 2004 to over 40,000 in 2010.
"It really puts pressure on our obstetrics services and neonatal intensive care units, and even may be the paediatrics services, and we need to address the issue in respect of patients' safety and in the interests of local expectant mothers," Dr Chow said.
He thanked the medical staff of the services concerned in the public hospitals for their dedication in maintaining quality services during such challenging times.
The medical staff expressed their concern over heavy workloads and shortage of manpower in the respective services in the public sector, and called for reasonable restrictions on the use of obstetric services by pregnant Mainland women in private hospitals.
In response, Dr Chow reiterated that the Government, the Hospital Authority (HA) and the private medical sector should work together to explore every possible means to tackle the problem.
"The health care of local expectant mothers should not be compromised under any circumstances. The HA will reserve sufficient places for local pregnant women to ensure that they have priority over non-local pregnant women in the use of obstetric services," he said.
Noting that the HA would stop making bookings for non-local pregnant women once service capacity is reached in public hospitals, Dr Chow called on the private medical sector to take into account their maternity services capacity when offering services to non-local pregnant women.
"We will meet representatives from private hospitals next week to see what remedial measures can be worked out on their side.
"With the concerted effort of all the parties concerned, we hope a multi-pronged solution can be formulated to address the issue.
"We must ensure that professional standards of obstetric care are maintained and ensure the continuation of our medical ethics," Dr Chow said.
Ends/Friday, April 1, 2011
Issued at HKT 19:25
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