Financial considerations in primary healthcare after COVID-19

In Hong Kong’s healthcare system, with the inception of the Primary Healthcare Commission as a new statutory body established in July 2024, there is a paradigm shift to a “front-loaded” approach in the provision of care and health services. There is also an urgent call to action in primary healthcare to support transdisciplinary medical intervention via telemedicine and modalities from academic research, as well as timely deployment of top-down and bottom-up approaches to population health crisis management. While primary healthcare is expected to disrupt the healthcare delivery model in Hong Kong of the bygone era, striving an equilibrium in financial discipline and concerted expansions in primary healthcare is expected to face contentious debate. One hypothesis being proposed by the authors is that care and health programs, in which the incentive on the end-user is preserved, with returns on investment and impact creation of cost-effective interventions for the primary healthcare community, which are likely to be ones that shall have adoption, meaningful prediction, and scalable value for the broader healthcare system. This chapter analyses and discusses the financial basis, assumptions and impact measurements arising from co-investments and strategic partnerships in a digital-connected age involving district health centres, governmental institutions, private primary care providers, social enterprises, and their members as part of the health delivery model. Case studies from a COVID-19 screening operator and a private healthcare institution will discuss the lessons learned from overcoming financial and resource constraints with resilience, and the recuperations and recommendations from a decentralised network during the heights of COVID-19 outbreaks.

The Handbook of Primary Healthcare: The Case of Hong Kong