Doctors at Hong Kong Asia Heart Centre offer surgeries at low cost to ease burden on public health care system amid coronavirus outbreak
- Hong Kong Asia Heart Centre says it will offer heart operations starting from HK$67,000 (US$8,630) to make emergency services affordable to public hospital patients
- It generally charges between HK$100,000 and HK$130,000 for percutaneous coronary intervention, which opens up narrow or blocked blood vessels in the heart
Doctors at a private clinic in Hong Kong will voluntarily perform surgeries at lower fees, as public hospital resources are stretched to the limit to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.
The Hong Kong Asia Heart Centre announced on Tuesday it would provide heart operations starting from HK$67,000 (US$8,630), half of what it usually charged, to make emergency services affordable to public hospital patients.
The service offered is called percutaneous coronary intervention, a procedure that opens up the narrow or blocked blood vessels in the heart.
The clinic’s two leading surgeons will not charge fees for their work, the centre said.
“[Public] hospitals are busy handling the viral outbreak,” Lam Yat-yin, the centre’s director and a consultant at Canossa Hospital, said. “We are trying to help fight the epidemic in our own way.”
Hong Kong’s public health care facilities are facing a growing challenge in handling the outbreak, as the contagion has spread to 49 patients in the city as of Tuesday afternoon and caused one death.
