The number of complaints against Hong Kong public hospitals has increased by more than a third, according to an annual report, with public appreciation for healthcare services also falling more than 10 per cent.
The Hospital Authority submitted the report to the Legislative Council on Monday. The figures showed public hospitals received 2,020 complaints between April 2022 and the end of March this year, an increase of 33.6 per cent from 1,512 over the previous year.
More than half of the complaints flagged in the report, or 58 per cent, focused on medical services. Staff attitudes, administrative procedure, overall performance and unspecified incidents accounted for the rest of the cases.
Patients’ rights advocate Tim Pang Hung-cheong, of the Society for Community Organisation, said the growing discontent among public hospital users could be an after-effect of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“During the pandemic, lots of services were suspended or delayed,” he said. “Later, when hospitals resumed services, they might not be able to clear the backlog of those scheduled cases.”
Pang said he had also learned of people seeking help after their surgical procedures were suspended during the pandemic, with hospitals yet to arrange alternative dates.
But the patients’ rights advocate said the number of complaints was similar to figures for 2018-19, which was considered a “normal” operating period for hospitals as it took place before the anti-government protests in 2019 or the pandemic a year later.
“Even the number of complaints have returned to normal,” Pang said.
Monday’s report also showed the number of people who expressed appreciation had dropped from 35,279 in 2021-22 to 30,920 in 2022-23, a decline of 12.4 per cent.
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Much of the praise focused on medical services and staff attitude, according to the document.
Similarly, most cases showing appreciation focused on medical services and staff attitudes.
A rise in complaints and drop in appreciation were also recorded at general outpatient clinics.
While the city’s healthcare system has grappled with a long-standing personnel shortage, the new report showed the number of Hospital Authority staff had risen slightly from 89,812 to 90,040.
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A breakdown of the data found that the number of doctors had increased from 6,941 to 7,055, while the figure for nursing staff had dropped slightly from 29,793 to 29,599.
In terms of total expenditure, the Hospital Authority also reported a rise to nearly HK$95 billion (US$12.2 billion).
Factoring in an income of about HK$95.4 billion, the authority had a surplus of HK$478 million, representing a 2.64 per cent drop from the previous year.
Alex Lam Chi-yau, chairman of Hong Kong Patients’ Voices, said he was glad to see there had been a significant increase in spending on drugs, from HK$9.64 billion to HK$12.5 billion, equivalent to a rise of about 30 per cent.
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“This is something we are glad to see … it could mean that the authority has spent more in buying newer or better medications,” he said.
Dr Tony Ko Pat-sing, the authority’s chief executive, continued to be its highest paid employee, receiving a remuneration package of nearly HK$6.6 million that year, including a basic salary and other short-term employee benefits.
Following Ko was Caritas Medical Centre’s hospital chief executive Dr Nelson Wat Ming-sun, who was paid HK$5.4 million, and Dr Theresa Li Tak-lai, who heads the Hong Kong West hospital group and earned HK$5.3 million.
