The Hong Kong government announced plans to add $500 million to the Chinese Medicine Development Fund beginning with this fiscal year during a budget speech in order to support the commissioning of large-scale training, research, and publicity projects on strategic themes and to advance more capacity-building programmes for the sector, including making preparations for Hong Kong’s first Chinese medicine hospital, which is expected to commence its operations in 2025, and thereby strengthen the Chinese medicine role when it comes to the primary healthcare system.
Several varied practitioners as well as organizations involved in the Chinese medicine industry have benefited from the rollout of more than ten funding schemes since the Chinese Medicine Development Fund’s formal launch in 2019.
It is well to be noted that at the end of the previous year, the government unveiled the Primary Healthcare Blueprint, which outlines several crucial reform initiatives for enhancing Hong Kong’s primary healthcare services and adopts prevention-oriented, community-based, family-centered, as well as early detection and intervention strategies. The goal of the Blueprint is to improve the general public’s health by developing a sustainable healthcare system and offering comprehensive and coordinated healthcare services.
Apparently, as introduced in the Blueprint, the government will launch the Chronic Disease Co-Care Pilot Scheme and enhance measures to the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme. The government is most likely to announce the details in the third quarter of 2023 and reserve enough financial resources for the schemes.
