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Through effective patient-doctor communication, doctors can address patient inquiries
and misunderstandings associated with health services to boost patient confidence,
uptake rates, and continuity of care (WHO, 2015). The role of doctors should expand from
provision of health services to include participation in the broader conversation around
health promotion, working to impart health-related information, and fostering change in
patients’ preventive behaviours. Therefore, in designing the Scheme, due
consideration should be given to the role of doctors in informing and
guiding patients to seek primary care services by providing doctors
with training on primary care regardless of their specialities.

Limitations

While our findings from the population-based survey are based on a representative sample of
the Hong Kong general public, we acknowledge that there may be limitations in our research
scope. Since 39.8% of the respondents had a chronic health condition in our survey, which is
higher than the prevalence of having at least one chronic health condition in the general
population (31.1% of the overall population had chronic conditions in 2019), the
generalisability of our findings must be taken with caution (C&SD, 2019). Additionally, the
willingness to participate was only reported by respondents without a prior HDH diagnosis.
However, this does not account for the individuals who may later qualify for the management
component of the Scheme and hence, may underestimate the actual willingness to
participate for the entire Scheme, outside of the screening voucher component. Furthermore,
our willingness-to-pay ranges were not set at equal intervals nor can they offer a more
specific price point that patients may be willing to accept. As such, the WTP may not fully
capture the variation in financial affordability to patients and the general public. More detailed
assessments may be of benefit in identifying willingness to participate in the Scheme and
financial affordability to users.

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