Full text of the Chief Executive's 2026 Policy Address (9)

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(C) Deepen Healthcare System Reform

297. The Government is pressing ahead with healthcare system reform and restructuring the functions and division of work among the HA, the DH and the PHC Commission. The goal is to establish a new healthcare model that emphasises prevention and integrates prevention with treatment. We will continue to deepen the reform, fully aligning with the national health-first development strategy and the opportunities presented by the 15th Five-Year Plan, while taking active public health measures, to consolidate Hong Kong's status as an international health and medical innovation hub and ensure that the outcomes of the reform are widely shared.

Strengthen Primary Healthcare Services

298. The Government will improve community healthcare and disease-prevention services:

(i) Upgrade the DHC Expresses in Wan Chai and Kwun Tong to DHCs, starting next year, and continue to upgrade other DHC Expresses.
(ii) Implement the phased integration of Elderly Health Centre services from the end of this year. Measures include more than doubling the service capacity for elderly health assessments, reducing the maximum waiting time by two-thirds, and providing similar services for underprivileged elderly through designated HA Family Medicine Clinics (FMCs).
(iii) Provide about 220 000 additional HA's Family Medicine Out-patient service quotas each year, starting next year, including around 10 000 quotas for evening out-patient service, to meet local demand. We will improve the provision of preventive screening and care services targeting the "three highs", hepatitis B and women's health for underprivileged groups at designated FMCs. We will boost co-operation between primary and secondary healthcare. In parallel, training for primary healthcare professionals will be strengthened to raise service quality.
(iv) Set up a co-ordination platform for public and private primary healthcare services to pilot the unified release of evening and public holiday consultation information for public and private out-patient clinics.
(v) Roll out the Community Pharmacy Programme from the end of this year, with the first phase covering four districts³¹ and progressively extending across the city. In parallel, launch the Community Drug Formulary and gradually increase the number of drugs covered.
(vi) Starting from next year, provide preventive primary oral healthcare services for specified high-risk groups at designated DHCs/DHC Expresses, and expand the Healthy Teeth Collaboration to offer outreach preventive oral healthcare services for residents of designated residential care homes for persons with disabilities (PWDs).
(vii) Publish the "Life-course Health Promotion Strategy" and monitor local health data, encouraging the public to accept primary responsibility for their own health and promote population-wide health management across different life stages.

Enhance Public Healthcare System

299. After the relocation of Queen Elizabeth Hospital to Kai Tak, the HA will develop Hong Kong's first integrated ambulatory care hospital at King's Park. The first phase will include a high-capacity ambulatory cataract surgery centre, a high-capacity ambulatory radiology centre and an ambulatory radiotherapy centre. With the commissioning of the cataract surgery centre in the fourth quarter of next year, annual service capacity will increase by about 5 500³². With annotation and triage at the ambulatory radiology centre to be carried out with AI, the annual service capacity for computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging will increase by about 40% compared to general facilities. The increase in service capacity at the radiotherapy centre will also accelerate treatment procedures for cancer patients.

300. All hospital development projects under the Government's First Hospital Development Plan are expected to be completed by 2031. By then, the number of beds in public hospitals will increase by 17% to about 35 000, while the number of operating theatres will increase by 44% to around 360. We will publish the Second Hospital Development Plan during the current-term Government and initiate projects in an orderly manner.

301. The HA will implement the Hong Kong Cancer Strategy, raising diagnostic imaging capacity and applying AI to assist with diagnosis and advanced laboratory testing. It will increase radiotherapy service capacity and expedite the introduction of new cancer drugs through public healthcare fees and charges reform, while stable and low-risk cancer survivors will be referred to primary healthcare, with multi-disciplinary palliative care and end-of-life services to be strengthened.

302. The HA has set a target to shorten the waiting time³³ for the first consultation of stable new cases in specified specialist³⁴ out-patient services by half in five years, with the waiting time of specified specialties to be reduced by 10% in 2027-28 in the first phase. By "narrowing upstream, collaborating downstream, diverting midstream", unnecessary referrals will be avoided and stable follow-up cases diverted to primary healthcare. The HA will also expand multi-disciplinary, integrated clinical services, optimise appointment arrangements and enhance service capacity.

303. The first phase of public healthcare fees and charges reform was implemented in January this year to increase protection for poor, acute, serious and critical patients, yielding immediate results, as follows:

(i) Accident and emergency services have become smoother, with a significant decrease in the number of non-urgent cases; fees for critical and emergency cases are fully exempted.
(ii) The number of beneficiaries of full medical fee waivers has surged, from under 14 000 a year in the past to more than 250 000, providing free medical services to more low-income families.
(iii) The burden on serious patients has been eased, with their annual spending capped at $10,000 and requiring no financial assessment. Over 17 000 patients have been granted a full medical fee waiver for the remainder, preventing impoverishment due to illness.
(iv) Accelerated the introduction and increased subsidisation for innovative drugs and medical devices. The HA has introduced 16 new drugs into the Drug Formulary and included 53 new drugs and medical devices³⁵ under the subsidisation scope of the Samaritan Fund safety net.

Strengthen Professional Regulation of Healthcare Services

304. The Government will introduce into the LegCo a regulation to improve the price transparency of private healthcare services by the end of the year and draw up codes of practice, setting out requirements on price information, budget estimates and billing statistics.

305. The Government will advance the scrutiny of the Medical Registration (Amendment) Bill 2026 by the LegCo to reform the Medical Council of Hong Kong (MCHK), and raise the manpower and system support for the MCHK and other healthcare professional regulatory bodies.

306. The Government will continue to support the IMACE in publishing clinical guidelines and devising service quality and efficiency standards for public and private healthcare sectors. The IMACE plans to publish clinical guidelines on the management of hyperlipidemia and percutaneous coronary intervention by the end of the year.

Continuously Implement eHealth+

307. Over 6.5 million citizens have registered with eHealth, accounting for 87% of Hong Kong's population. In the past year, the monthly number of electronic health records deposited by private healthcare providers increased by over 110%, to about 1.45 million. More than 44 000 citizens have used eHealth to enable the sharing of cross-boundary medical records.

308. The Government will further facilitate the deposit of electronic health records by private healthcare providers, expand the cross-boundary sharing of medical records and enhance the nine core functions, including eMedication and eMedical Certificate.

Press Ahead with the Establishment of the Third Medical School

309. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is moving ahead with the establishment of Hong Kong's third medical school. The Medical Education and Research Complex at the Clear Water Bay campus will be completed by mid-2028 to admit the first cohort of students.

310. On using Kai Tak Hospital as the interim teaching hospital, the Government is exploring teaching arrangements with the HKUST and the HA. We are also pressing ahead with the integrated design and co-ordinated construction of the medical school campus and the integrated teaching and research hospital in the San Tin University Town.

Promote the Development of Inheritance and Innovation in Chinese Medicine

311. The Government will continue to implement the Chinese Medicine Development Blueprint. The annual out-patient service volume of the CMHHK will be increased from 60 000 to over 140 000 attendances in the first year. The Government Chinese Medicines Testing Institute will continue to formulate Chinese Materia Medica Standards, which align with international standards and develop innovative Chinese medicine-testing technologies. Future development measures include:

(i) Starting from the end of the year, the CMHHK will launch 24-hour in-patient services, provide additional day beds, increase out-patient service capacity, introduce more special disease programmes, begin related research, and set up a clinical trial and research centre. In addition, clinical training opportunities for local students and more subsidised training posts for registered Chinese medicine practitioners will be provided. The International Consortium of Herb-Drug Interaction will be officially established to promote research and clinical application of herb-drug interactions.
(ii) The Chinese Medicine Clinics cum Training and Research Centres based in all 18 districts will roll out pilot out-patient services for special diseases.
(iii) We will continue to develop HA's integrated Chinese-Western Medicine (ICWM) services, including regularising a "knee osteoarthritis" pilot programme, expanding ICWM services to day-care services, and refining the "cancer care" pilot programme.
(iv) We will sponsor regional and international Chinese Medicine conferences and exhibitions.

Sustain Efforts in Tobacco Control

312. The Government will fully implement the duty stamp system by the end of next year to effectively distinguish duty-paid from duty-not-paid cigarettes. The plain-packaging requirement on conventional smoking products will be introduced at the same time.

Promote Mental Health

313. The Government will adopt an integrated approach to promoting 11 mental health measures:

(i) Continue to implement the Three-Tier School-based Emergency Mechanism in Primary Four to Six on a trial basis in the 2026/27 school year and enhance the related support services, strengthening training for school professionals to facilitate early identification of and support for students with higher suicidal risk.
(ii) Provide teacher training on catering for students' mental health needs, and organise programmes relating to the physical and psychological well-being of teachers.
(iii) Set up an additional Integrated Community Centre for Mental Wellness in the NM to dovetail with population growth.
(iv) Enhance the function of the Cyber Youth Support Teams by strengthening their co-operation with schools and community networks to support the emotional and psychological needs of students, conduct assessments and take follow-up action immediately after receiving cases involving students with higher suicidal risk and in emotional distress.
(v) Extend the Healthy Mind Pilot Project to all existing DHCs before mid-2027, improve frontline staff training, provide more timely assessments or referrals, organise more outreach activities and step up promotion and publicity.
(vi) The PHC Commission will study public-private partnerships and other approaches to encourage more cross-disciplinary professionals, including family doctors, to provide mental health services.
(vii) The Government has endorsed the framework for the Stepped Care Model on Mental Health submitted by the Advisory Committee on Mental Health. The next step is to consider setting competency standards and designing training courses for mental health practitioners, co-ordinating the distribution of duties among departments, and drawing up details for full implementation.
(viii) The Advisory Committee on Mental Health will explore the possibility of setting up a mental health experience exhibition in the urban area to promote mental health and eliminate social prejudices.
(ix) Through the Hong Kong Jockey Club "Chief Executive Community Project List", the Government will fund a series of mental health support projects enabling clear identification, early intervention and enhanced support. We expect the projects to benefit over 30 000 persons.
(x) Launch a Mental Health Literacy Resource Package for Parents and organise parent education programmes³⁶ relating to student mental health.
(xi) Attract more organisations and their staff to join the Mental Health Workplace Charter and encourage the organisations to optimise their staff training content.

(D) Enhance and Diversify the Housing System

314. The current-term Government is pressing ahead with a public housing policy geared towards advancing quantity, speed, efficiency and quality, to expedite the fulfilment of housing needs for low-income families and, in an orderly manner, tackle the big and difficult housing issues that have lingered for years. Since the implementation of the BHU regime in March this year, we have been steadily advancing towards the eradication of substandard SDUs.

315. We will continue to increase public housing supply on all fronts, while enhancing the housing ladder to enable people of different income groups to realise home ownership, thereby fundamentally building a new paradigm of more sustainable, multi-strata housing supply in Hong Kong.

Continuous Pursuit of Land Development

316. In the next decade (i.e. from 2027-28 to 2036-37), the Government will prepare about 2 500 hectares of "spade-ready sites" to build up the land reserve and meet the demand for economic development and the community's housing needs, thus retaining control over land supply. Of these sites, it is expected that some 1 400 hectares will be produced in the next five years, including about 1 000 hectares in the NM.

Supply of Land for Private Housing Development

317. The Government will take account the overall situation to determine the pace of land disposal and co-ordinate other land supply sources to meet housing demand in the next 10 years according to the Long Term Housing Strategy and other land requirements.

Release Industrial Land in Urban Areas

318. The DEVB will make reference to the Study on Utilisation of Existing Industrial Stock, which is underway, to explore the release of more industrial land in urban areas and make recommendations by the end of the year, including the way forward for the Revitalisation Scheme for Industrial Buildings.

Review on Urban Renewal Policy

319. In August, the DEVB introduced measures to use newly developed land for urban renewal³⁷. To enable the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) to pursue redevelopment in a sustainable manner, the DEVB and the URA are conducting a policy review, offering recommendations for commencing consultation in 2027.

Control Construction Costs

320. The DEVB has rolled out various initiatives to lower construction costs, achieving an annual saving of about $4 billion³⁸ for public works projects. Hong Kong's ranking has dropped to 16th globally this year, falling out of the top 10 for the first time, according to the International Construction Cost Index. The Government will, among others, adopt innovative procurement models, enhance Hong Kong's construction standards and introduce more AI solutions to further lower construction costs.

Increase Public Housing Supply

321. The current-term Government has laid a solid foundation for, and is entering the harvesting phase of, public housing production. In the next five years, from 2027 28, public housing production will exceed 35 000 units a year on average, an increase of about 73% compared with the five-year period since I took office.

322. Since the launch of the innovative LPH, upon my assumption of office, about 26 000 units have largely been completed with intake already underway, benefitting around 14 000 PRH applicants and their families. The remaining some 4 000 units will be successively completed before the end of March next year. All 30 000 LPH units will be completed in slightly over four years, ahead of the five-year target set out in my 2022 Policy Address.

323. The overall CWT was 4.8 years as of the end of June this year. That is more than one year shorter compared with the peak of 6.1 years before the current-term Government took office. Over the same period, there were about 100 500 general applications for PRH, and around 81 000 non-elderly one-person applications under the Quota and Points System. These numbers, when measured against their respective highest levels at 156 400 and 143 700, represent a significant drop by over 30% and over 40% respectively, demonstrating that the waiting queue for PRH is being effectively shortened.

324. The current-term Government has been combatting PRH abuse to prevent the mismatch and waste of PRH resources. As of June 2026, the HKHA has recovered around 10 500 PRH flats from tenancy abuse and breach of tenancy agreement or housing policies. This is equivalent to two large housing estates comparable to the size of Kai Ching Estate, and has enabled the early intake of over 10 000 families on the waiting list, yielding savings of over $10.5 billion in construction costs financed by public money.

Enhance Subsidised Sale Flats

325. The HKHA's new SSF projects, in accordance with the "Well-being" Design Guide, are equipped with multi-functional recreational and sports spaces, communal spaces, elderly-friendly facilities and green spaces designed for intergenerational integration. The HKHA will continue to improve the design of SSF to better meet modern living styles, including improving natural lighting and adopting an open kitchen design in suitable units for two-to-three person households.

326. Last year's Policy Address announced the relaxation of the alienation restriction period to 10 years for new SSFs offered for sale. To encourage upward mobility on the housing ladder, we will also shorten the alienation restriction period to 10 years for SSFs first put up for sale between 2022 and 2025.

Eradicate Substandard Subdivided Units and Implement the Basic Housing Unit Regime

327. Since March this year, the BHU regime has been rolled out in phases under the principle of "registration first, enforcement later". Responses to our call for grace-period registration have been positive. The HB will continue its registration and recognition work.

328. Starting from March next year, the HB will conduct inspections and take enforcement and prosecution action in an orderly manner against illegal letting of SDUs with no registration and no recognition, conducting joint operations with relevant departments to enhance deterrence. Upon the expiry of the grace period at the end of February 2030, the HB will rigorously combat illegal letting of substandard SDUs by owners or operators.

329. The HB will provide tenants in need with comprehensive, people-oriented support through its District Service Teams in various districts. This includes assisting eligible tenants to apply for traditional PRH and LPH, and flexibly co-ordinating resources such as transitional housing and Hostels for Single Persons, providing tenants in need with temporary shelters or helping them find alternative accommodation in the private market.

Promote the Scheme on Joint Property Management

330. From 2027-28, the HAD will continue to implement the Scheme on Joint Property Management in districts with needs for two years. Through the newly formed Working Groups on Building Management under all DCs, the HAD will continue to facilitate the execution of duties by DC members and enhance exchange.

Persistently Promote the Use of Building Technologies

331. The MiC approach reduces the construction time of a typical floor of public housing buildings by about 17%, and is effective in reducing water and electricity consumption and waste. The HKHA will adopt the AIoT³⁹ System for logistics and transport in the tender exercises for new projects to boost the transport efficiency and quality of modules.

332. The HKHA will identify more projects to apply the "Building Information Modelling (BIM)-enabled Systematic Approach to Foundation Design", saving about $1 million for each domestic block on average.

333. We injected $1 billion into the Construction Innovation and Technology Fund (CITF) this year. Together with the CIC's contribution of $400 million, a total of $1.4 billion will be used to support the wider application of I&T⁴⁰ in the construction industry, especially among SMEs.

334. The DEVB has required that MiMEP be adopted in suitable public works projects, as well as repair and maintenance works, since the middle of this year. A one-stop integrated information platform was launched to support the industry.

³¹Eastern District, Yau Tsim Mong District, Yuen Long District and Sha Tin District.

³²The number of cases waiting for cataract surgery recorded a downward trend instead of upward since the HA strengthened its cataract surgery service in 2024. The 90th percentile waiting time was also shortened from 37 months to 32 months. Waiting time is expected to be further shortened to 18 months by 2032.

³³The 90th percentile waiting time.

³⁴Ear, Nose and Throat, Ophthalmology, Gynaecology, Medicine, Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Psychiatry and Surgery.

³⁵Including 27 new drugs/expanded clinical indications and 26 recommendations for out‑of‑pocket medical devices.

³⁶Including digital health.

³⁷Including the implementation of the Bonus Plot Ratio Pilot Scheme and the cross‑district transfer of plot ratio scheme.

³⁸Accounting for about 3% of the total annual expenditure on public works projects.

³⁹Artificial Intelligence of Things

⁴⁰Including new technologies such as construction robots, AI and digital construction technologies.

(To be continued.)

Ends/Wednesday, September 16, 2026
Issued at HKT 14:10

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