Facility, which hopes to bring Chinese medicine development in Hong Kong to the world, will add extra slots to meet demand

Hong Kong’s first Chinese medicine hospital has opened its doors to patients, with subsidised outpatient services for the first month fully booked, prompting the facility to add extra slots to meet demand.

The Chinese Medicine Hospital of Hong Kong is located in Tseung Kwan O. It aims to provide services for more complex cases under a model that features Chinese medicine as the leading approach while integrating Western medicine.

“We hope to bring the development of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong to the world and establish a more solid foundation,” said Wong Kwai-huen, chairman of the hospital’s board of directors.

“The hospital will fully push for the ongoing enhancement of healthcare services, teaching, training and research, and actively facilitate the Chinese medicine development blueprint, which will be announced by the government soon.”

Professor Bian Zhaoxiang, the hospital’s chief executive, said operations ran smoothly on the first day, despite huge patient demand.

“Government-subsidised service quotas are fully booked for the first month. In response, we have doubled the quotas for the first 10 days and added 30 per cent more slots starting from [Thursday],” Bian said.

He revealed that a total of 181 patients, including those using subsidised and private services, booked appointments on the first day.

The hospital will begin by offering outpatient, day-patient and allied health services in its first year, followed by inpatient services from the second year onwards.

Bookings of the hospital’s six specialised clinics, which cover internal medicine, external medicine, gynaecology, paediatrics, orthopaedics and traumatology, as well as acupuncture and moxibustion, were also 80 per cent full as of Thursday morning.