The Hospital Authority will continue to re-engineer its services to cater for the population's increasing needs - despite resource constraints, the Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food says.

Speaking in the Legislative Council, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong said the international trend has been to develop ambulatory and community-care programmes and to use them to replace in-patient treatment, where appropriate.

Dr Yeoh said, in response to this shift, the Hospital Authority plans to cut 1,200 general beds - about 4% of the total of about 29,300 existing beds. 

The Authority will maintain the overall number of clinical staff at the current level, while reducing managerial and supporting staff levels.

To help relieve the Authority's financial pressure, hospitals are allowed to keep half of the income from new fees, such as the Accident & Emergency charge, and drug charge, Dr Yeoh said.