ENG-2009 — Page 211

Health 155

following aspects and initiating the first-stage public consultation which lasted for three months:

(a) enhance primary care services;

(b) promote public-private partnership in healthcare;

(c) develop electronic health record sharing;

(d) strengthen the public healthcare safety net; and

(e) reform healthcare financing arrangement.

The first stage public consultation on healthcare reform showed that the community generally recognised an imminent need for healthcare reform; that it had a clear consensus on the service reform proposals and felt the Government should act on them. The public in general agreed that the ageing population and rising medical costs would lead to a vast increase in medical expenditure, and the Government therefore needed to address the financing issue to maintain the sustainability of the healthcare system. However, the public had reservations about the mandatory healthcare supplementary financing options proposed in the consultation documents.

The Government has stated that it will increase the health budget progressively from 15 per cent to 17 per cent of recurrent expenditure. Meanwhile, it has been taking forward the healthcare service reform measures which have received wide public support, including the enhancement of primary care service, promotion of public-private partnership in healthcare and development of a territory-wide electronic health record sharing system. It will also strengthen the public healthcare services safety net to provide better protection for patients requiring costly drugs and treatment.

The Government is working on a voluntary supplementary financing scheme that will aim to make available a wide choice of private healthcare services for those who are able to afford them by using schemes comprising insurance and savings components that will be standardised and regulated by the Government. The Government will also consider using the $50 billion set aside to support implementation of healthcare financing reform to provide incentives or subsidies for those participating in the scheme. This will both ease the pressure on the public healthcare system and benefit people in need of public health care services.

Primary Healthcare and Medical Services

Primary healthcare covers a wide range of public health services such as health promotion and disease prevention. It is the first step in the healthcare process, comprising general outpatient services, specialised health care, and specialist medical treatment, provided by public healthcare organisations for people in specific age groups who do not require hospital attention.

Figures available to the DHA in 2009 show spending on primary healthcare, which includes spending on public general outpatient clinics, private outpatient