政府早前建議將公立醫院多項收費調高，當中急症室收費由現時100元增加八成至180元，（The government proposed to surge Emergency ward fees by 80% to $180.） 普通科門診亦由45元加價11%至50元，（proposed to increase charges for general outpatient clinics from HK$45 to HK$50.）
新收費擬在今年年中實施。政府指出加價可鼓勵病情並非最危急的急症室病人轉往輪候門診服務。（The government plans should be able to encourage appropriate use of Emergency service.）
可考慮延長夜診
部分市民選擇使用急症室，或因其提供較多元服務及容易入院，筆者認為醫管局希望藉加價來減少市民使用急症室並非長遠做法，建議醫管局改善普通門診轉介入院服務，相信可減少部分急症室使用人次。長遠應有其他配套，包括延長夜診服務至凌晨12時，另增加專科門診籌額服務。（In order to reduce the number of non-emergency cases at A & E, the HA should extend night out-patient services to 12 am and to allocate extra resources to specialist outreach services.
現時公營醫療服務最大的樽頸環節是醫護人員的數目不足，提供的服務受到局限，這並不是金錢可解決的事，所以要進一步紓緩病人等候時間，不只是加價趕客，更重要的是提供更多醫護人員。（Shortage of medical staffs is the bottleneck in public health services. Fee hike is not a concrete solution to alleviate patients' long waiting time. In long run, the authority must hire more medical staffs in order to coup with such challenge.）
改工作環境留人
政府和醫管局都必須考慮如何培訓更多醫務人員、改善工作環境讓公營醫護人士留任，亦可以進一步方便海外醫生，特別是在海外受訓，行醫具水準及經驗的港人醫生回流香港在公營醫院行醫，這涉及修改法例，以及醫務委員會的配合。（Both the Government and the Hospital Authority must consider to train more medical staff. They need to improve the working environment to provide more incentive for public health professionals to stay at public hospitals. We may also further facilitate overseas doctors, especially overseas trained professionals and experience Hong Kong doctors to rejoin the public hospitals.）■陳威雄
隔星期五見報