Hong Kong ombudsman urges authorities to digitise after-death services
Watchdog calls for public agencies to create one-stop online platform to help bereaved with services amid city’s ageing population
Hong Kong’s ombudsman has urged authorities to digitise after-death arrangements and provide a one-stop online platform for the bereaved, as demand for such service is expected to grow with an ageing population.
Ombudsman Jack Chan Jick-chi on Wednesday called on government agencies such as the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, the Immigration Department, the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority to collaborate and create a website for grieving residents to make after-death arrangements.
These included digitising and simplifying the death registration processes and applications for mortuary services, cremation and coffin burials, he said.
Chan said that the platform could “significantly reduce” the pressure and emotional stress on the bereaved.
“The bereaved are already grieving and the platform will reduce the need for them to personally go down to different government departments to handle the paperwork, which doubles their pain during these difficult times,” he said.
The watchdog cited an example of the Immigration Department’s website, which it said was challenging to navigate for those needing information on how to register deaths.
“Nine application forms relating to births and deaths registration and other services are available when they click on ‘Forms related to deaths registration’,” the ombudsman said in its report.
