Programme Introduction

Noting the expanding aging population in Hong Kong, and in view of the steady increase in the number of cataract patients as well as a lengthening of waiting time to undertake cataract surgery in public hospitals over the past few years. Additional funding was earmarked by the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 2007 to implement the first ever private-public partnership (PPP) pilot Programme, named Cataract Surgeries Programme (CSP), to provide additional cataract surgeries to meet the growing service demand through a PPP delivery model.
The CSP commenced in February 2008 and achieved the target of delivering 10,000 cataract surgeries in 2010/11. In view of the positive response, additional funding has been approved since 2011/12 for the continuity of the CSP.

Patients who have been on HA clusters’ routine cataract surgery waiting lists for a specified period and are suitable for local anaesthesia surgeries would be invited to join the CSP, with priority to those who had waited longest on the waiting lists.

Under the CSP, participating patients who choose to receive cataract surgeries performed by private ophthalmologists could receive a fixed amount of $8,000 subsidy, and may need to co-pay an amount of not more than $8000 for the service package, which consists of one pre-operative assessment, the cataract surgery including intraocular lens, and two post-operative checks.

The CSP has been largely supported by both patients and private ophthalmologists, affirmative views were expressed in a survey conducted by an independent market research agency. Most agreed that the Programme could provide more choices to patients and shorten waiting time to receive cataract surgeries.

CSP provided an alternative for eligible cataract patients to undertake cataract surgeries in the private healthcare sector, and helped other cataract patients indirectly by shortening the waiting list and notional waiting time in HA. It also helped to address the imbalance between public and private sectors in provision of healthcare services by enabling optimal use of the service capacity in the private sector, as well as creating a constructive channel to flow HA patients to the private sector on a voluntary basis through the PPP delivery model.

There are cataract patients who live alone, have mobility difficulties or other problems, with a need for extra assistance and support. In view of this, free volunteer escort service was implemented in October 2012, to arrange hospital volunteers to accompany participating patients to the private clinic to receive pre-operative assessment, cataract surgery, and post-operative checks.