The Hospital Authority (HA) said on Monday that the SAR’s major public healthcare reform has achieved its goal of reallocating resources to better serve patients.

Since the start of the year, only critical and emergency patients at accident and emergency departments of public hospitals are treated for free, with remaining patients needing to pay a standard HK$400 charge.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the HA Convention 2026, chairman Henry Fan said non-urgent cases have dropped by 22 percent following the change.

“Currently, Category I – or critical patients – continue to receive immediate treatment. Category II – or emergency patients – can be treated within 15 minutes,” he said.

“While for patients triaged as Category III or urgent, the average waiting time has been reduced by 17 percent from 24 minutes to 20 minutes.”

Overall attendance at the A&E dropped by up to 11 percent, Fan added.

He also noted that under the reform, more eligible patients now shoulder less medical expenses.

“As of the end of April 2026, the number of patients approved for fee waivers has significantly increased to over 224,000, which is 16 times the annual number of 14,000 before the reform.”

In terms of capacity, the city is expected to have about 35,000 public hospital beds by 2031, compared to around 30,000 in March 2022. Fan said the number of operating theatres will also increase by about 110 to 360 by then to meet rising demand.

Fan also said the number of hospitals accredited under the national hospital accreditation standards is expected to grow from four to seven next year.

The deputy director general of the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Office of the National Health Commission (NHC), Li Wei, told the same event that the NHC hopes Hong Kong will continue to play a role in the nation’s medical development.

“We will continue to support Hong Kong in leveraging its advantage of being backed by the motherland and connected to the world – building itself into a hub for healthcare talent," Li said on behalf of the commission’s vice minister Zeng Yixin.

"We will support more exchanges between Hong Kong medical institutions and the mainland, sharing experiences in hospital development and meticulous management,” she said.

“We will also support Hong Kong health technology professionals in taking part in more national major science and technology projects and key research and development programmes.”

More than 9,000 medical professionals are expected to participate in the three-day event at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai that features about 200 speakers.


Edited by Aaron Tam