Speech on motion debate “Implementing the Kai Tak Planning to dovetail with Kowloon East development” (Translation):

　　President, when the Kai Tak Planning is put into implementation, we must avoid any negative impact on the adjacent areas, such as traffic congestion, rising rents, and so on. We also hope to make use of the abundant new sites provided in Kai Tak to ameliorate the Government's past planning problems and make up for the shortage of land in Kowloon East and other areas.

　　Both Mr WONG Kwok-kin and Mr WU Chi-wai have expressed their views on public healthcare facilities under the planning for Kai Tak. I would also like to take this opportunity to put forward additional proposals on public facilities in the healthcare and social welfare sectors.

　　Let me begin with healthcare. Currently, resources for the various hospital clusters under the Hospital Authority are very unevenly distributed. For instance, only 10% of the allocated funds go to Kowloon East, though it houses 14% of the territory's population. Hence, more than half of the waiting periods for the specialist out-patient service in Kowloon East are at the very bottom. Why? One of the reasons is that the hardware, I am referring to hospital beds, in Kowloon East is inadequate. In Kowloon East, there are only 2.1 hospital beds for every 1 000 persons, which is less than half of the six hospital beds in Kowloon Central and five on Hong Kong Island. Hence, I support the proposal put forward by Mr WONG and Mr WU to construct a general hospital and implement the expansion of the United Christian Hospital and Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital, for the sake of easing the pressure on public healthcare services in Kowloon East.

　　However, some healthcare issues cannot be resolved, no matter how remarkable public hospitals are. For instance, it is inevitable that some patients have to wait. Moreover, patients cannot choose service providers. Hence, many people, especially the middle-class people and those who have insurance coverage ― in fact, many public housing tenants have insurance coverage ― will elect services in the private sector. In fact, the demand for private healthcare services in Hong Kong is quite high, but hospital beds in this sector are inadequate, too. Currently, the public and private healthcare sectors in Hong Kong provide 35 000 hospital beds in total. Despite accounting for only 12% of these hospital beds, the services provided by the private sector last year exceeded 20% in terms of hospitalization. If arrangements are made for the transfer of patients, such as cancer patients, to private hospitals where there are more patients, such as the two private hospitals in Kowloon City, they might need to wait for a whole week.

　　Hence, I hope the Government can earmark land for the construction of private hospitals when developing new areas. Moreover, the sites selected for private hospitals should not be too far away from residential areas because, after all, they serve mainly local residents. Moreover, only approximately 1 hectare of land is required for the construction of a private hospital. Compared to the 320 hectares of land under the Kai Tak planning, this ratio is negligible.

　　As regards other communal facilities, in addition to those provided to meet housing needs, every community must also be provided with such communal facilities as schools, markets, libraries, car parks and even public toilets, before it can develop in a healthy manner. President, Secretary, I originally thought that these urban planning elements were simply commonsense. However, from my experience gained in this Council in the past few years, I find that some government departments have worked on their own during the planning process without detailed preparations. Consequently, they could only make belated efforts to cope with unexpected situations in the face of urgent needs. For instance, despite the Government's announcement in 2010 that 24 Integrated Community Centres for Mental Wellness will be built to support services in 18 districts, more than 70% ― I said 70%, not seven ― of these Centres are still unable to find permanent premises. For instance, the venue rented by The Society of Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention in Kowloon City, serving 370 000 people, measures only 1 800 sq ft, less than half of the Government's originally proposed area of 5 000 sq ft. Despite the Government's proposed area of 5 000 sq ft, The Society of Rehabilitation and Crime Prevention has opted to rent a venue of 1 800 sq ft only. The Mental Health Association in Kwun Tong south has also rented a premises of less than 1 800 sq ft as its permanent venue. The bid to rent a venue by the Christian Family Service Centre in Tseung Kwan O has been rejected by The Link REIT on the ground that the flow of people will be affected. The Integrated Community Centre for Mental Wellness has been unable to identify a venue because of frequent oppositions raised by people in the districts. If the Government can earmark some floor area, such as several storeys in public housing estates, during the planning process, then resistance in the districts can be minimized.

　　As regards residential care homes for the elderly and people with disabilities, the Social Welfare Department currently provides 25 000 residential care places for the elderly, but there are 28 000 on the waiting list. So, the average wait is 30 months. With 7 000 people on the waiting list, the situation with homes for the disabled is equally bad, for the waiting period for hostels for moderately disabled persons and those for severely disabled persons can exceed 80 months. Can the Secretary consider, in addition to "Hong Kong property for Hong Kong residents", exempting property developers from the payment of premium and requesting them to earmark some floor area for the provision of residential care facilities? In fact, the provision of residential care facilities in private residential buildings can magically lower the prices of private residential flats.

　　In the face of such an acute shortage, according to my figures, the Government can provide only approximately 3 100 residential care places for the elderly and 2 700 residential care places for people with disabilities in the coming five years. These 2 000 to 3 000 residential care places will be unable to make up for the shortfall arising from the growing demands of the ageing population in the future. This is why I hope the Government can earmark some places for social welfare facilities in the planning for Kai Tak.

　　According to the Kai Tak planning proposal, 37.85 hectares of land are designated for Government/Institute/Community (GIC) use to meet the needs of the districts as well as the entire territory. I disagree with the view that sites earmarked for GIC use in Kai Tak should be rezoned for residential purposes for the provision of more residential units. As I pointed out just now, community planning should take care of housing needs as well as the provision of other public facilities before it can dovetail with social development. Such an approach of making use of every single site is unsatisfactory. The Government must make holistic planning before its target of Energizing Kowloon East can be achieved.

　　President, I so submit.