Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of the People Republic of China) lies off the south coast of China's Guangdong province. Including Hong Kong Island, Stonecutters Island, Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories, the total land area is about 1,100 square kilometres. Real GDP growth in 2004 was an impressive 7.4%.
The pharmaceutical market, which was hard hit in 2003 by the SARS epidemic, has rebounded strongly, with normal outpatient activity and routine procedures having resumed in the public hospital sector. In 2004, market growth reached an exceptional 15%, although this should be seen in the context of the slump in 2003, and should not be considered a trend.
One of the most important influences of future growth will be the planned “white list”, or central/standard formulary, for reimbursement in the public sector, and the extent to which products are excluded from this list to be paid for out of pocket. In the near-medium term, the crisis in healthcare financing will make the operating environment difficult for pharmaceutical companies, especially as more than 50% of the industry’s business is with the government sector and the HA will become even more dominant in the provision of healthcare.
There are four main thrusts to the HA's cost-containment policy:
- Transferring more of the cost to the patient through new charges and increases in existing charges
- Clustering of public hospitals in order to achieve economies of scale
- Cutting back on staff costs
- Shifting patients back into the private sector through public/private sector collaborations
