Topic: The government recently announced that there will be a ban on mainland mothers who are not married to HK men to be treated in the public hospitals. Write a letter to the editor showing your concern and discussing both the good and bad points of this newly-established measure. Suggest some alternative measures to reduce the number of mainland mothers coming to HK to give birth, in order to solve the problem. Sign your letter Chris Wong.
Dear Editor,
I am writing to show my concern about the recent measure established by the government that public hospitals could slap a ban on treating mainland mothers who are not married to Hong Kong men. Stakeholders, for example, citizens, hospital doctors, organizations which are concerned about the right of mainlanders in Hong Kong, and mainland mothers, are arguing whether this measure is fair to all of the people in society and benefits the Hong Kong public obstetric and paediatric services. I also wish to express my opinion about the good and bad points of this measure, and suggest some alternative methods to reduce the number of mainland mothers coming to Hong Kong to give birth.
First of all, the ban can alleviate the shortage of manpower and resources of the public obstetric and paediatric services. Recently, the mainland mothers account for nearly half of the total number of mothers giving birth in public hospitals. The neonatal intensive care units at public hospitals are unable to get more staff and beds to deal with a huge flood of babies born to mainland mothers. Such an excessive demand may lower the quality of the services and cannot maintain the professional standards of Hong Kong paediatric services. The ban can reduce the working capacity of the doctors and nurses, to let them have more energy to provide quality care.
Besides, Hongkongers are the ones who pay taxes to maintain the daily running of medical services of public hospitals, while the mainlanders have not contributed to the daily running of public hospitals, and are not taxpayers. Public hospitals need to set priorities, and they have a duty to first take care of Hong Kong people and their spouses. Hong Kong mothers are the ones who are entitled to the service. Moreover, cases that mainland mothers do not pay for the fees often happen. The ban is fairer to Hong Kong mothers, who can then enjoy quality and professional obstetric services.
However, it may be argued that the ban would constitute discrimination against mainland mothers, as once they can afford to pay the medical bill, they have the right to come to Hong Kong and give birth. The ban is hence not fair to the mainland mothers, and giving birth in any places is their basic human right.
One more worry is that the ban could lead to a waste of resources, as there are not enough local mothers to fill up the capacity. There may then be a waste of manpower.
In my opinion, some alternative measures can help to solve the problem of large numbers of mainland mothers coming to Hong Kong to give birth.
The first suggestion is to increase the charge for cross-border families to come to Hong Kong to give birth. As the living standard on the mainland is increasing, more mainlanders earn a high salary and can afford to pay for the charge. The government needs to correspondingly increase the charge to effectively discourage mainland mothers from giving birth in Hong Kong.
Second, the Hong Kong government needs to cooperate with the mainland government to prosecute unethical agents luring mainland mothers to Hong Kong. These unscrupulous agents often make false claims about the obstetric services in Hong Kong to make money.
To conclude, the government should have more careful planning of the city’s public obstetric and paediatric services. Although imposing a quota on mainland mothers coming to Hong Kong to give birth each year may help to ease the burden on the public hospital services, the government should continue to explore other feasible measures, to sustain the quality of local medical services and maintain equality among stakeholders.
Yours faithfully,
Chris Wong
Chris Wong