Hong Kong can’t afford to outsource its healthcare to mainland China

In recent years, Hongkongers have developed a new habit: going north for their medical check-ups. A 2024 survey found nearly one in three residents had sought medical care in mainland China. The reasons are as predictable as they are troubling: shorter queues, cheaper drugs and upfront prices.

If this trend sounds like a temporary release valve for a stressed system, think again. What we’re seeing isn’t a convenient side option; it’s an unofficial outsourcing of healthcare. Left unchecked, it may well hollow out the very system we’ve spent decades building.

Hong Kong’s public hospitals are, in some respects, victims of their own success. We boast one of the world’s highest life expectancies – a medical marvel, yes, but also a demographic time bomb. Ageing residents mean skyrocketing demand for healthcare. Add a chronic shortage of medical staff, and you get a system where booking a specialist is like winning the quota for a popular school.

Of course, private hospitals offer another route, if you’ve got the wallet for it. For many families, the price tag makes private treatment feel less like healthcare and more like luxury retail.

It’s little wonder Hongkongers are looking across the border. There, appointments are quicker. Prices are clearer. Even the apps are better. The booking experience in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, often feels more like ordering dinner on a delivery app than scheduling an MRI. Convenience matters. Right now, we’re losing that game.

But while Shenzhen may offer swifter consultation, relying on it is hardly a long-term solution. If enough patients and eventually professionals start drifting north, Hong Kong will lose its healthcare market share as well as its capacity to develop future talent, run clinical trials and innovate in medicine.

South China Morning Post