2018/19 Funding and budget allocation at a glance

Starting from 2018/19, the Government will increase the recurrent funding for the Hospital Authority (HA) on a triennium basis having regard to population growth and demographic changes.

The overall recurrent subvention to HA in 2018/19 amounts to $61.5 billion, representing an increase of around 11% over the preceding financial year. The additional recurrent subvention has been deployed for launching new initiatives and enhancing existing services to meet the rising demand for hospital services and improve the quality of patient care.

To help relieve frontline pressure arising from persistent manpower shortage, manpower across all staff grades will be increased. This includes taking on all available local medical and nurse graduates, continuing to re-engage suitable retirees, and hiring part-time and temporary healthcare professionals. The budget so required was already allocated upfront to clusters at the beginning of 2018/19. If further budgetary needs arise, Head Office will deploy more resources during the year. Apart from the budget for manpower, with relatively stable Government subvention, additional provision for uplifting baseline budget has been allocated for common pressure areas as required by clusters.

Besides, HA has deployed around $500 million for clusters to implement relief measures to alleviate work pressure on frontline healthcare personnel in tackling the demand surges. The corresponding budget has also been allocated to clusters for advance planning.