LCQ17: Measures to facilitate elderly persons to retire in the Mainland
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Question:
A growing number of elderly Hong Kong residents are retiring in the Mainland cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), which involves issues such as residential care services, emergency referrals, healthcare services, sharing of medical records, the use of health care vouchers (HCVs) and the interoperability of welfare benefits. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) (i) of the number of residential care homes (RCHs) participating in the "Residential Care Services Scheme in Guangdong" as at the end of May 2026, the cities in which they are located and the number of elderly persons residing in them;
(ii) of the number of elderly participants in the Scheme who had to return to Hong Kong for medical treatment, referral or hospitalisation due to health reasons in the past 12 months; (iii) whether the Government has reviewed the liaison and referral arrangements between the RCHs participating in the Scheme and the healthcare system in Hong Kong; if so, of the results; if not, the reasons for that;
(2) (i) of the usage of the "Elderly Health Care Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Scheme" (the Pilot Scheme) and the cross-boundary health record sharing under "eHealth+" as at the end of May 2026, including the number of medical institutions involved in the Pilot Scheme at present, the cities in which they are located, the types of services provided, the number of elderly persons who have used HCVs and the amounts involved, as well as the number of persons who have used the "Cross-boundary Health Record" service and the types of information that can be accessed through the service; (ii) whether the Government will consider extending the relevant arrangements to more medical institutions, and stepping up publicity and support for elderly persons and their carers; if so, of the details and timetable; if not, the reasons for that;
(3) of the current referral, appointment, follow-up and medical record interoperability mechanisms between the Government and the Mainland departments and medical institutions for Hong Kong elderly persons residing in GBA who need to return to Hong Kong for treatment or follow-up consultations due to illness; whether the Government will consider setting up a clearer cross-boundary healthcare co-ordination mechanism, and studying the further extension of the direct cross-boundary ambulance service; if so, of the details and timetable; if not, the reasons for that; and
(4) given that Hong Kong elderly persons retiring in the GBA may still face issues such as medical expenses, self-financed medication expenses, long-term care and the portability of welfare benefits, whether the Government will consider discussing with the Mainland departments more comprehensive cross-boundary healthcare and welfare interoperability arrangements, including medical protection, support for medication for chronic disease and welfare facilitation measures, and setting up a one-stop cross-boundary information platform for elderly persons retiring in GBA; if so, of the progress and timetable; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
On the premise of benefitting the development of Hong Kong and the Mainland, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government has been following the principles of complementarity and mutual benefits to enhance co-operation with various Mainland cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), so as to provide more options and convenience for Hong Kong residents who choose to reside on the Mainland.
The reply, in consultation with the Labour and Welfare Bureau (LWB), the Social Welfare Department (SWD), the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority (HA), to the question raised by the Hon Chan Cho-kwong is as follows:
(1) and (4) In terms of elderly welfare, the LWB is committed to implementing the Residential Care Services Scheme in Guangdong (GDRCS Scheme) which provides an additional option of subsidised residential care services for Hong Kong frail elderly persons and facilitates their retirement in the Mainland cities of the GBA. As at end May 2026, a total of 26 residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) in Guangdong (GD) joined the GDRCS Scheme with 1 271 Hong Kong elderly residents, fully covering the nine Mainland cities of the GBA.
RCHEs participating in the GDRCS Scheme are required to provide quality residential care services to Hong Kong elderly persons and attend to their health and care needs. These include a monthly medical checkup and general medical consultation conducted by a registered medical practitioner arranged by the RCHE, escort and/or inpatient accompanying services and provision of transportation. The SWD does not maintain statistics on the number of elderly persons who need to return to Hong Kong for medical treatment, referral or hospitalisation owing to health problems. The HKSAR Government has also implemented multiple cross-boundary healthcare measures in recent years, details of which can be found in the answers to (2) and (3) of the question below.
To enhance the GDRCS Scheme, the SWD launched a two-year Pilot Medical Subsidy Arrangement in December 2025 which shares the medical expenses the elderly participants need to bear on their own under the National Basic Medical Insurance Policy (Note). The annual ceiling of the subsidy is RMB10,000 per person for outpatient expenses and RMB30,000 per person for inpatient expenses. As at end-April 2026, reimbursement applications submitted by 286 elderly persons had been approved, involving about RMB1.4 million. In April 2025, the SWD also engaged the relevant RCHEs concerned to arrange participating Hong Kong elderly persons to subscribe two medical insurance schemes available in their place of residence, namely the Basic Medical Insurance for Urban and Rural Residents and the Commercial Medical Insurance, with full premiums borne by the SWD.
As for portable cash assistance measures, the LWB has implemented the GD Scheme, the Fujian (FJ) Scheme and the Portable Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme, enabling eligible Hong Kong elderly persons who choose to retire in GD and FJ Provinces to receive Old Age Allowance, Old Age Living Allowance or CSSA without returning to Hong Kong every year. To further facilitate cross-border retirement starting in the middle of this year, Hong Kong elderly beneficiaries residing in GD and FJ Provinces may opt to have their cash payments remitted directly by the HKSAR Government into their accounts of designated Mainland banks. The remittance service will be free of charge.
In addition, the LWB launched a three-year Pilot Scheme for Elderly Recipients of CSSA to Reside in Residential Care Homes in GD in October 2025 to subsidise CSSA elderly recipients who are relatively healthy and capable of self-care to reside in RCHEs under the GDRCS Scheme, providing them with an additional retirement option and enhancing their quality of life. Apart from continuing to receive their CSSA payments monthly, participating elderly persons will receive an additional monthly subsidy of $5,000 under the said Pilot Scheme to cover residential care home fees.
Details of the relevant measures have been uploaded to the SWD's website. The general public may also access information related to elderly welfare services through the cross-boundary public services page of the GovHK website. The HKSAR Government will continue to maintain close liaison with relevant departments of the Mainland authorities to strengthen co-operation on elderly welfare services.
(2) and (3) In terms of healthcare services, the public or subsidised healthcare services provided by the HKSAR Government are based on catering for the needs of local Hong Kong residents. At the same time, the HKSAR Government has been actively promoting GBA healthcare collaboration in recent years to provide Hong Kong residents, who regularly travel to and from Mainland cities in the GBA, with additional choices of subsidised healthcare services comparable to those in Hong Kong at designated service points on the Mainland. Such measures, however, are not intended to fully cater for the healthcare services required by Hong Kong residents who choose to settle on the Mainland.
Elderly Health Care Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Scheme
The HKSAR Government launched the Elderly Health Care Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Scheme in 2024 to extend the coverage of the Elderly Health Care Vouchers (EHCVs) by phases to seven integrated medical/dental institutions in Mainland cities of the GBA. The said Pilot Scheme was further extended in 2025 to include 12 additional medical institutions to cover all the nine Mainland cities in the GBA, offering more convenience and flexibility for eligible Hong Kong elderly persons by providing more service points in the GBA for them to better use their EHCVs on primary healthcare services to improve health conditions. Together with the two existing service points operated by the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital (HKU-SZH), eligible elderly persons can use the EHCVs at a total of 21 service points in the Mainland cities of the GBA.
As at end-May 2026, over 40 600 eligible elderly persons have used EHCVs to pay for the fees of outpatient healthcare services received at the pilot medical institutions, which have launched services under the said Pilot Scheme, involving about 101 000 voucher claim transactions and a total claimed amount at approximately $103.28 million. Since the launch of the said Pilot Scheme, the utilisation rate has been rising steadily. The service types for using the EHCVs are mainly "follow up/monitoring of long-term conditions" (54 per cent) and "preventive" (22 per cent). All pilot medical institutions have been operating smoothly. However, the said Pilot Scheme is still in its initial operation period and more than half of the pilot medical institutions have operated for less than a year. The Government will continue to assess and monitor the operation and usage of EHCVs in the pilot medical institutions and review the effectiveness of the said Pilot Scheme in due course before studying further arrangements to facilitate the use of EHCVs by the elderly.
Cross-boundary Sharing of Medical Records
Since 2024, the "Cross-boundary Health Record" and "Personal Folder" functions in the eHealth mobile application have been gradually launched at 20 medical institutions, including the HKU-SZH and medical institutions under the Elderly Health Care Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Scheme.
The "Cross-boundary Health Record" function enables eHealth users to apply for their electronic health records (eHRs) deposited in eHealth over the preceding three years and to authorise the healthcare professionals of designated medical institutions outside Hong Kong to access the eHRs during consultations to assist with diagnosis and treatment. In addition, users may deposit the medical records obtained outside Hong Kong in their personal eHealth accounts via the "Personal Folder" function to facilitate centralised storage and usage, including allowing authorised healthcare institutions in Hong Kong to access through eHealth during follow-up care. Under the principle of "bring your own health records", these two functions facilitate Hong Kong citizens to securely use their eHRs across the boundary, thereby enhancing continuity of care.
Starting from December 2025, the Government has extended the "Cross-boundary Health Record" function, which was previously limited to eligible elderly recipients of the EHCVs, to all eHealth users in Hong Kong. The Government has also upgraded the "Personal Folder" function in January 2026. Citizens may authorise three designated medical institutions outside Hong Kong (namely the HKU-SZH, Zhongshan Chen Xinghai Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine and Shenzhen New Frontier United Family Hospital) to directly deposit high-resolution radiology reports and images, which are often challenging to upload themselves, into their personal eHealth accounts.
The cross-boundary functions have received positive feedback since its launch. As of the end-May 2026, more than 23 000 citizens have used the "Cross-boundary Health Record" function, submitting over 29 000 applications. Moreover, citizens have uploaded more than 35 000 records through the "Personal Folder" function, which consisted mainly of investigation reports, and of which over 50 per cent of these records originated from the HKU-SZH and medical institutions under the EHCV GBA Pilot Scheme. As for the high-resolution radiology image function upgrade for the "Personal Folder", over 9 000 applications have been received since its launch in January.
The Government will continue to maintain close communication with the relevant Mainland authorities and medical institutions in expanding and deepening cross-boundary medical record sharing orderly through eHealth, with a view to supporting the cross-boundary healthcare needs of citizens more effectively and enhancing the quality and safety of cross-boundary medical services.
Pilot Scheme for Direct Cross-boundary Ambulance Transfer in the Greater Bay Area
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 GBA. With the support of various national ministries, the HKSAR Government, in collaboration with the GD Provincial Government, the Shenzhen Municipal Government and the Macao Special Administrative Region Government, officially launched the Pilot Scheme for Direct Cross-boundary Ambulance Transfer in the Greater Bay Area on November 30, 2024. The first phase of the said Pilot Scheme started by arranging direct cross-boundary ambulance transfer of patients from designated sending hospitals in Shenzhen and Macao to designated public hospitals in Hong Kong. On November 9, 2025, the said Pilot Scheme was extended to designated hospitals in Zhuhai and Nansha. Since March 27, 2026, two-way transfers with Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Macao has been officially implemented under the said Pilot Scheme, providing safer, more timely, and convenient transfer arrangements for patients with specific needs in the region.
The overall operation of the said Pilot Scheme has been smooth since its implementation. To date, 28 patients have been transferred to designated public hospitals in Hong Kong from designated sending hospitals in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Nansha and Macao. On May 27, 2026, a Mainland resident was transferred point-to-point from Tuen Mun Hospital to Zhuhai People's Hospital for treatment, which marked the official operation of two-way transfers. The HKSAR Government will continue to review the effectiveness of the said Pilot Scheme closely and consider how to extend the said Pilot Scheme with the governments of GD and Macao, with a view to taking forward the direct cross-boundary ambulance transfer service.
Pilot Scheme for Supporting Patients of the Hospital Authority in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area
The Government launched the Pilot Scheme for Supporting Patients of the Hospital Authority in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area on May 10, 2023 to facilitate eligible HA patients to receive subsidised consultation services at the designated collaborating healthcare institution in the GBA, providing them with an additional service option. The said Pilot Scheme is currently applicable to the HKU-SZH and has been extended to March 31, 2027. For eligible HA patients who wish to withdraw from the said Pilot Scheme and return to HA hospitals for consultation, the HKU‑SZH will, based on the patient's clinical needs, assist in arranging referral to the corresponding HA outpatient clinic for follow‑up care, ensuring seamless continuity of medical services.
In terms of drugs, Hong Kong elderly persons residing in the GBA have the same eligibility as those living in Hong Kong when applying for financial assistance schemes such as the Samaritan Fund.
As regards the Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme (VHIS), the basic protection of the VHIS Certified Plans offered by participating insurance companies, namely the Standard Plan in its entirety or the part of Flexi Plans that provides basic protection equivalent to the Standard Plan, must cover hospitalisation, day case procedures and prescribed diagnostic imaging tests. Except psychiatric inpatient treatment which is limited to hospitalisation in Hong Kong, the basic protection applies worldwide, including in the GBA cities. The prevailing benefit coverage of the VHIS can therefore cater for the needs of Hong Kong people using relevant healthcare services, including those travelling to other cities of the GBA.
In conclusion, the Government will continue to closely monitor the trends and needs of elderly Hong Kong residents residing across the border, particularly those retiring in the GBA. In support of the HKSAR Government's policy direction to encourage elderly Hong Kong residents to retire in the GBA, the Health Bureau, the LWB and relevant departments will collaborate closely to provide necessary and appropriate facilitation measures, and maintain communication with relevant Mainland authorities on these initiatives.
Note: The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the National Healthcare Security Administration promulgated the Interim Measures for Participation in Social Insurance by Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Residents on the Mainland in 2019, allowing eligible Hong Kong residents to participate in the national health insurance schemes on the Mainland.
Ends/Wednesday, June 17, 2026
Issued at HKT 16:15
Issued at HKT 16:15
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