Hong Kong and mainland China have cooperated on healthcare – but new partnership is no instant cure
The road to reunification between Hong Kong and mainland China has been a bumpy one over the past 20 years and their relationship has, if anything, become even more sensitive in recent years. In the first of a three-part series that also looks at education and marriage and retirement options, here we ask it realistic to open up the mainland health care market and to bring it closer to international standards?
Tension between Hong Kong and the mainland was high in 2003 after the deadly outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars).
An infected professor, who worked at a Guangzhou hospital, spread the respiratory virus to guests at the Kowloon hotel where he was staying and on to medical staff who treated him.
Hospitals, doctors and nurses were among the first to suffer in an epidemic that infected 1,755 and claimed 299 lives in the city.
As health control measures were tightened at the border to prevent further spread, mainland officials were accused of a Sars cover-up.
Many Hongkongers still remember the darkest of days as they travelled on public transport fearful of those wearing face masks around them in a panic-gripped city that many had abandoned.
