LCQ17: Pilot Scheme for Direct Cross-boundary Ambulance Transfer in the Greater Bay Area
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Question:
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government, in collaboration with the Guangdong Provincial Government, the Shenzhen Municipal Government and the Macao SAR Government, launched the Pilot Scheme for Direct Cross-boundary Ambulance Transfer in the Greater Bay Area (the Pilot Scheme) on November 30 last year to implement the arrangement for the direct cross-boundary ambulance transfer of patients from designated sending hospitals in Shenzhen and Macao (i.e. the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital and the Conde S. Januario Hospital of Macao) to designated public hospitals in Hong Kong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the number of cases in which Hong Kong residents who were injured or suffering from illness in the Mainland required emergency medical and ambulance arrangements upon returning to Hong Kong in the past three years;
(2) of the number of requests received by the two designated sending hospitals in Shenzhen and Macao for the cross-boundary ambulance transfer of patients since the launch of the Pilot Scheme and, among such cases, the respective numbers of those confirmed by the sending hospitals after assessment to have (i) met and (ii) failed to meet the conditions for activating the cross-boundary ambulance mechanism; and
(3) whether the authorities have publicised and promoted the Pilot Scheme to members of the public, in particular those residing on the Mainland on a long-term basis; if so, of the details?
Reply:
President,
The study on the provision of land-based cross-boundary transfer for non-emergency and non-critically ill patients and the exploration of rolling out a pilot co-operation scheme for cross-boundary referral of patients between designated public hospitals were put forward in the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) also put forward in the 2023 Policy Address the initiative to explore cross-boundary ambulance transfer arrangements between hospitals in the GBA. With the support of various national ministries, the Hong Kong SAR Government, in collaboration with the Guangdong Provincial Government, the Shenzhen Municipal Government and the Macao SAR Government, officially launched the one-year Pilot Scheme for Direct Cross-boundary Ambulance Transfer in the GBA (the Pilot Scheme) on November 30, 2024.
The first phase of the Pilot Scheme starts by arranging direct cross-boundary ambulance transfer of patients from designated sending hospitals in Shenzhen and Macao (i.e. the University of Hong Kong - Shenzhen Hospital (HKU-SZH) and the Conde S. Januario Hospital (CHCSJ) of Macao) to designated public hospitals in Hong Kong.
Under the Pilot Scheme, upon assessment and agreement by the teams of designated cross-boundary collaborating hospitals, arrangements can be made for patients with specific clinical needs and suitable clinical conditions to be transferred directly to Hong Kong between designated hospitals in a point-to-point mode without the handover of patients between ambulances at boundary control points, thus minimising risks posed to patients during transfer.
Subject to the effectiveness and operational experience of the Pilot Scheme, the governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao will consider how to expand the scheme, such as including more designated hospitals (including Mainland cities in the GBA other than Shenzhen) and/or extending the Pilot Scheme to a two-way arrangement.
In consultation with the Security Bureau and the Hospital Authority (HA), the reply to the question raised by Professor the Hon Chan Wing-kwong is as follows:
(1) Apart from the aforementioned Pilot Scheme for transfer of patients between hospitals under specific circumstances, if Hong Kong residents are injured or suffered from an illness on the Mainland and require emergency medical and ambulance arrangements upon returning to Hong Kong, in accordance with the established arrangement, they may raise the request on the Mainland by contacting the Assistance to Hong Kong Residents Unit of the Immigration Department. The residents may also request assistance from the officers of boundary control points upon arrival or dial the hotline at 999 during emergency. The departments concerned will provide assistance to the residents according to their actual circumstances. In case of a genuine need, based on the established arrangement between the Fire Services Department (FSD) and the HA, residents will be transferred by an ambulance from the boundary control points to the Accident and Emergency Department of a nearby HA hospital for treatment.
According to the figures of the FSD, the number of calls for emergency ambulance services handled by the FSD at Hong Kong ports of various land boundary control points from 2022 to 2024 are tabulated as follows:
| Year | Number of cases |
| 2022 | 1 038 |
| 2023 | 4 868 |
| 2024 | 5 581 |
(2) Since the implementation of the Pilot Scheme (up to end-April 2025), the HA has received a total of 11 cross-boundary ambulance transfer cases, of which eight were referred by the HKU-SZH, and three were referred by the CHCSJ of Macao. Among the cases, the patients were aged between 15 and 79, and the medical conditions involved included respiratory failure, atrial fibrillation, respiratory support through a ventilator. According to professional medical assessment, patients of the above cases have a need for continuous hospitalisation for treatment. Their conditions were relatively stable, but were unable to return to Hong Kong on their own and were unsuitable for transfer to Hong Kong ambulances via the existing boundary control points. Separately, a patient as referred by the HKU-SZH was considered not meeting the criteria for transfer after the joint assessment of the case by the medical teams of the two places, and hence, the mechanism of transfer arrangement was not activated. It must be emphasised that not all patients with the aforementioned conditions are necessarily suitable for cross-boundary ambulance transfer. The sending and receiving hospitals will make professional and careful assessments based on the individual patient's current clinical conditions to determine whether it is necessary to arrange a cross-boundary inter-hospital transfer for the patient to receive continuous treatment or rehabilitation.
(3) The Government has explained the Pilot Scheme and its activation mechanism through press releases and the social media platforms of the Health Bureau prior to and after the launch of the Pilot Scheme. On January 10, 2025, immediately after the successful point-to-point transfer of the first patient from the HKU-SZH to an HA public hospital, the HA held a press conference jointly with the HKU-SZH to explain in detail to the general public the arrangements for the first case of patient transfer by cross-boundary ambulance under the Pilot Scheme. The Government will continue to closely communicate with the HA and the designated sending hospitals.
The direct cross-boundary ambulance transfer arrangement is not an emergency ambulance call service, but a cross-boundary inter-hospital transfer arrangement made by the relevant professional medical teams according to the medical conditions of individual patients. In-patients or their families may directly consult the doctors of the designated sending hospitals whether cross-boundary transfer is necessary and appropriate. Since conditions and medical needs vary among patients, doctors of the sending hospital will assess, on a case-by-case basis, the need for the patient to have cross-boundary inter-hospital transfer for continuous treatment or recovery services, taking the patient's clinical diagnosis and actual conditions into consideration. The medical department of the sending hospital will communicate with the Major Incident Control Centre of the HA for joint assessment, information exchange and co-ordination with the receiving hospital to decide whether the transfer mechanism should be activated. The sending and receiving hospitals will also ensure that the patient's relatives and/or the patient have given consent to the relevant arrangements and are informed of the risks involved in the transfer.
Ends/Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Issued at HKT 17:05
Issued at HKT 17:05
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