Anne Zhang

zhangy49@gmail.com

THE University of Hong Kong (HKU) Shenzhen Hospital will raise its package fee for general medicine treatment at its outpatient department from 130 yuan (US$21) to 200 yuan, hospital officials said yesterday.

The new fee will take effect Sept. 1 and covers registration, consultation, routine examinations and tests, as well as basic medications for the first seven days.

The hospital will also add 36 medicines and four checks into the package.

The hospital has been designated by the government as a pilot facility for reforms in public medical care. It has taken the lead in promoting general medicine practices and implementing a package fee for general medicine treatment at the outpatient department.

The current 130-yuan package fee is lower than the average cost for outpatient treatment at Shenzhen’s three major hospitals — Shenzhen People’s Hospital, Shenzhen No. 2 People’s Hospital and Peking University Shenzhen Hospital — which was 230 yuan from 2010 to 2012.

The outpatient department of general medicine at HKU Shenzhen Hospital has seen about 100,000 patients in the past two years.

Yet the hospital has been operating at a huge deficit since its inception, despite Shenzhen Municipal Government investing 3.5-billion-yuan into building it and providing financial aid for the first five years of its operation, according to previous media reports.

The fee increase is seen as a step taken by the hospital to cope with its budget deficit, some insiders said.