Medical tourism is something new to me. I've heard stories of Mainlanders coming to Hong Kong for quality medical treatment, and I've heard of Hong Kongers going to China for cheap medical treatment. However, this is the first time I've heard of people actually trying to promote "medical tourism" as a selling point.
Basically, Mainland Chinese will come to Hong Kong for medical treatment at private hospitals as tourists. They will be allowed an extended stay for their treatment. I guess running a hospital has long become a business rather than a service; I just didn't realize it.
Are private hospitals in financial trouble? Do they need patients from China to fill beds? Kwong Kwok-hay, assistant medical superintendent of the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital said that the hospital is in short supply of nurses, and it is already at 90% capacity. He also brought up a very good point: what are they to do in the case of an emergency? They cannot send the "vacation patients" to a government hospital.
It is a shame that China cannot even take care of its own people's medical needs. Every time I see this type of incompetence from the Mainland, I think of all those people boasting about how great Shanghai is, and how it has overtaken Hong Kong in wealth and modernity. My response to that is, so what? China has such a poor infrastructure and social system. Crime and corruption is rampant. The rich are too rich, and the poor are too poor. Those rich have to come to Hong Kong for health care on a traveler's visa because their own government can't take care of them.
Basically, Mainland Chinese will come to Hong Kong for medical treatment at private hospitals as tourists. They will be allowed an extended stay for their treatment. I guess running a hospital has long become a business rather than a service; I just didn't realize it.
Are private hospitals in financial trouble? Do they need patients from China to fill beds? Kwong Kwok-hay, assistant medical superintendent of the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital said that the hospital is in short supply of nurses, and it is already at 90% capacity. He also brought up a very good point: what are they to do in the case of an emergency? They cannot send the "vacation patients" to a government hospital.
It is a shame that China cannot even take care of its own people's medical needs. Every time I see this type of incompetence from the Mainland, I think of all those people boasting about how great Shanghai is, and how it has overtaken Hong Kong in wealth and modernity. My response to that is, so what? China has such a poor infrastructure and social system. Crime and corruption is rampant. The rich are too rich, and the poor are too poor. Those rich have to come to Hong Kong for health care on a traveler's visa because their own government can't take care of them.
2 comments:
Obviously I'm planning my trip to Hong Kong in February for all the wrong reasons then ;P
I see a lot of bitterness in your blog lately my friend.
By the way I was reading the new the other day about those shopping tour. It seems like they have set a min charge of 98 dollars per person. Do you think that will work?
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