Primary healthcare blueprint unveiled

December 19, 2022

Secretary for Health Prof Lo Chung-mau:

Primary healthcare is different from the traditional treatment-based (healthcare) system because primary healthcare focuses on prevention and early detection and diagnosis.

Especially (when) using chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes as examples, if you can detect and diagnose these two conditions early, you will be able to avoid complications.

That will help us in the long run, not just to improve our people’s health (and) save lives, but also to save money in our overall public healthcare expenditure.

The Primary Healthcare Blueprint sets the direction for a reform of our healthcare system. It will change our overall healthcare plan in the next few decades. 

We have short, medium and long-term goals. So for the timetable, for example, when we now put up the Primary Healthcare Blueprint, we will start a discussion with different stakeholders including the medical profession, other healthcare professions, our patients and various interested parties. This will be done in the next few months, and the Chronic Disease Co-Care Scheme will be implemented within the second and third quarter of 2023.

The District Health Centre is an important hub for the delivery of primary healthcare. The previous issue with the low utilisation of district health centres is partly related to the fact that the blueprint had not come out yet. With the blueprint coming out, I am sure the district health centres will have a much more busy time.

(To watch the full press conference with sign language interpretation, click here.)

The Government released the Primary Healthcare Blueprint today to formulate the direction of development and strategies for strengthening Hong Kong's primary healthcare system.

Elaborating on the blueprint at a press conference this afternoon, Secretary for Health Prof Lo Chung-mau said it addresses the challenges brought about by an ageing population and the increasing prevalence of chronic disease, and will enhance people's health and quality of life in the long run.

“Primary healthcare is different from the traditional treatment-based healthcare system because primary healthcare focuses on prevention and early detection and diagnosis.

“Especially when using chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes as examples, if you can detect and diagnose these two conditions early, you will be able to avoid complications.

“That will help us in the long run, not just to improve our people’s health and save lives, but also to save money in our overall public healthcare expenditure.

“The Primary Healthcare Blueprint sets the direction for a reform of our healthcare system. It will change our overall healthcare plan in the next few decades.”

The major directions of primary healthcare reform include developing a community-based primary healthcare system to further develop the district-based, family-centric community healthcare system based on the service model of District Health Centres as well as strengthening the concept of "Family Doctor for All”.

It also recommended to introduce the Chronic Disease Co-Care Scheme to provide targeted subsidies to citizens for diagnosis and management of target chronic diseases, in particular hypertension and diabetes, in the private healthcare service sector.

Prof Lo expects the scheme to be implemented within the second and third quarter of 2023.

Another direction of the reform is to strengthen primary healthcare governance by establishing a two-way referral mechanism between primary healthcare services and specialist and hospital services.

Consolidating primary healthcare resources is also one of the directions. The blueprint recommends making wider use of market capacity and adopting the co-payment principle in providing government-subsidised primary healthcare programmes.

It also suggests reinforcing primary healthcare manpower and improving data connectivity and health surveillance.

Prof Lo added the blueprint has set set out short, medium and long-term goals and that the Government will discuss it with different stakeholders in the next few months.

Click here for the blueprint.