What is Cataract Surgeries Programme?
Noting the expanding aging population in Hong Kong, and in view of the steady increase in the number of cataract patients as well as a lengthening of waiting time to undertake cataract surgery in public hospitals over the past few years. Additional funding was earmarked by the Government in 2007 to implement the first ever private-public partnership (PPP) pilot Programme, named Cataract Surgeries Programme (CSP), to provide additional cataract surgeries to meet the growing service demand through a PPP delivery model.
CSP Service package
Each participating patient will receive one pre-operative assessment, cataract surgery including intraocular lens, and two post-operative checks from the private ophthalmologist that he/she chosen.
Eligible person
Patient who fulfill the following criteria will be eligible to be invited for the Programme.
- has been on the HA cataract surgery waiting list for 18 months or above;
- local anaesthesia is suitable for the patient; and
- has been triaged to routine waiting list. (Urgent and early cases need to be handled with priority. Therefore, the HA will continue to arrange surgeries for these cases instead of offering these patients the choice to undertake treatment from private ophthalmologists.)
Patients do not need to approach HA. The HA will issue invitation letters in batches to the patients to invite them to apply to participate in the Programme, with priority to those patients who have waited longest on the HA central waiting list.
Patient should follow below steps to look for a private ophthalmologist to receive CSP service pacakge
Patient should have registered to the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHRSS).
Patient choose a private ophthalmologist to conduct his/her cataract surgery, he/she should present the his / her Programme Registration Number to the doctor who will then enter this number in the eHRSS to log the subsidy. Once the private ophthalmologist has logged the subsidy, it will be irreversible.
The patient must approach private ophthalmologist to receive the pre-operative assessment before the Subsidy Expiry Date and complete the cataract surgery within 3 months after the pre-operative assessment.
After completion of the cataract surgery, patient shall sign on the ”Subsidy Redemption Form” to confirm that he has received the cataract surgery.
Programme features and service fee
CSP provided an alternative for eligible cataract patients to undertake cataract surgeries in the private healthcare sector, and helped other cataract patients indirectly by shortening the waiting list and notional waiting time in HA.
For participating patients selected Quality Healthcare’s ophthalmologist, patient need to pay HK$8,000 as co-payment and patient will receive a fixed amount of HK$8,000 subsidy for the service package.
Those who are Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Recipient, certificate holders for full or partial waiver of medical charges or Old Age Living Allowance Recipient aged 75 or above will enjoy the same fee waiver arrangements as for the HA’s services.
* Elder Healthcare Voucher is not applicable to the co-payment of CSP service package
How to receive CSP service package from Quality HealthCare?
Eligible patients that have accepted the invitation from the Hospital Authority, please make an appointment through the below hotlines:
- Quality Healthcare Eye and Surgery Centre : 2243-3073
- Quality HealthCare Medical Centre (Admiralty-Admiralty Centre) : 2529-8668, 2529-8667
(Source of Information: Hospital Authority)
