Top Hong Kong eye doctor sees public-private cooperation as key to fixing lopsided health system
Dr Chow Pak-chin, vice-president of the Medical Association, seeks to improve lopsided care structure via public-private partnership
As a vice-president of the city's largest doctors group, respected ophthalmologist Dr Chow Pak-chin believes one of his missions is to facilitate a partnership programme between private doctors and public hospitals aimed at easing burdens now facing the public sector.
Programmes rolled out by the government have failed to achieve their goals because of several factors, mostly technical problems in implementation, said the 61-year-old doctor, who had championed many campaigns to eradicate blindness, especially among the underprivileged in Hong Kong and on the mainland.
The Medical Association vice-president is known to be a supporter of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, and was once tipped to become health minister before Dr Ko Wing-man got the job.
"Senior government officials and hospital leaders have been very eager to set up the public-private programme," Chow said.
"Private doctors are also very supportive and hope it will be a win-win situation for both sides. Sadly, there are certain difficulties in implementation that have meant the programme has not been very successful."
The city's health care service relies heavily on public hospitals, which care for 90 per cent of patients while employing just 40 per cent of doctors.