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Theme 2. Propelling primary healthcare development

Subtheme 2.1 – Developing primary healthcare is important in alleviating our
overburdened health system. The healthcare burden due to non-communicable diseases
is burgeoning against the backdrop of a city home to a rapidly ageing population. These
diseases entail serious complications, hence the need for frequent care in hospitals and
clinics. In order to relieve the anticipated healthcare demand as expressed by stakeholders,
Hong Kong should take upstream approaches such as implementing
prevention-oriented policies within a PHC framework.

Stakeholders’ voices

The elderly [suffering from non-communicable diseases] will take
up more hospital beds and push up patient numbers. They are
admitted frequently too.

Patient group representative

Chronic illness is still the most important… One in ten people are
diabetic, one in four adults [are] hypertensive, one in three [have]
high cholesterol... This is a growing time bomb. By 2025, one in four
people will be more than the age of 65. I mean, these are such
cliched data that everybody’s talking about already. With increasing
elderly population, these percentages will increase.
Private service provider

I think we (stakeholders collectively) really need to address the
age-related issues that are happening in the community. I think
we are looking at possibly 16% to 18% of population in the
community who are already over 65. So, I think in 10 years or
more, maybe we’re looking at [an increase to] 35%. So that’s a
substantial amount of workload to the healthcare system.
Professional body representative

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