The city's consumer watchdog on Thursday called on various private healthcare service providers, including hospitals and clinics, to be more transparent when they disclose their fees, given complaints over unexpectedly higher medical costs.

The Consumer Council said it received 191 complaints between 2021 and 2024, which were related to private medical care services, involving some HK$7.2 million.

About half of those complaints were due to disputes over fees and charges.

The council blamed the disputes partially on the lack of sufficient disclosures of fees by those private health care premises, adding a council study found that nearly 70 percent of patients surveyed encountered "price variations" when examining their bills.

The final costs, in some cases, were HK$60,000 to HK$70,000 higher compared with the initial budget estimation.

But about 65 percent of respondents did not get any explanation regarding the price difference, and about 39 percent reported receiving only verbal budget estimates without any written or detailed breakdowns of the chargeable items.

Separately, the council pointed out the dramatically varied prices among the private premises also made it difficult for people to compare medical costs for the same treatment.

To tackle the issue, the watchdog urged private medical providers to disclose their price list online, and roll out more packaged treatment services with clear and detailed written prices for consumers to choose and compare.