Sylvia Y.K. Fung
Tung Wah College, Hong Kong
Title: Health Policy - Sustainability In Practice For An Ageing Population
Biography
Biography: Sylvia Y.K. Fung
Abstract
Hong Kong has topped the world in 2015 in the longevity of her population. This brings along the heavy burden of chronic diseases and care of the lone elders. The Government of Hong Kong has a healthcare policy that “No one in Hong Kong is deprived of medical care because of lack of means”. With low taxation rate and escalating elderly population, public healthcare services are facing immense pressure of accessibility. Hong Kong is spending about 6% of her Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on healthcare where the public sector contributes half of the amount, i.e. less than 3% of GDP. Sustainability of the aforementioned public healthcare policy and thus its services has a gloomy outlook. Cost effectiveness is the major element within health economics that the government and services providers are levering on. Moreover, with the change in social structure in Hong Kong from extended to nuclear familiar, Hong Kong is having a very high institutionalized rate of more than 6% among the elders. Facilitaing elders to continue residing at their domestic place could ease the financial burden of the society as well as enhancing the quality of life of the elders. The complexity and technicality of integrating social and healthcare services poses great challenge when transforming the policy of “ageing in place” into practice.
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