Local mothers forced to use public wards as mainlanders flood into private hospitals
The shortage of maternity beds at private hospitals has reached crisis point and is compromising local mothers' rights to quality services, say local women and doctors.
They said the growing influx of mainland women to give birth was using up much of the capacity in the private hospitals, forcing local mothers to seek beds in public hospitals.
The Private Hospitals' Association hopes that the situation will improve after private hospitals this month began charging mothers a deposit of between HK$3,000 and HK$20,000 to discourage multiple bookings.
Mainlanders make up 40 per cent to 60 per cent of maternity patients in private hospitals. The number of babies born to parents who both come from the mainland jumped to 12,596 in the first nine months of this year, up 17 per cent year on year.
Most of the obstetric beds in private hospitals are fully booked until June or July next year.
