The Implications of the Corporatization of Health Care Delivery in Hong Kong

IntroductionThe Hong Kong Hospital Authority has been formally established with theenactment of the Hospital Authority Ordinance on July 25, 1990. Thisstatutory corporation will soon take over the management and control of allpublic hospitals, which house approximately 90 per cent of the territory'shospital beds. Government hospitals have hitherto been managed andfinanced directly by a government department - the Hospital ServicesDepartment (previously called the Medical & Health Department). Sub-vented hospitals have in theory been owned by voluntary organizations, butin practice they have been heavily subsidized and tightly controlled by thegovernment. While many have expressed concern over the transfer arrange-ments for staff,