Healthcare System
Hong Kong's healthcare system is quite unique. It is important for you to remember it's basic structure and be able to describe it. The questions in this section are quite factual, as long as you did your homework, you should have no problem answering them in your interview
Be prepared
Give detailed answers
Be honest. If you don't know or understand something, ask.
What do you know about Hong Kong's healthcare system
This question is asking for a general overview of the Hong Kong healthcare system. If you have lived in Hong Kong for more than a few years or watch the news, you will be able to talk about a thing or two. Refrain from going into too much details regarding one particularly aspect in the system, instead talk about how the system runs in general and discuss the major stakeholders involved.
What is it’s structure
Hong Kong medical system is complex, there are many things you can talk about. These are the few main points you should include in your answer, but you are welcome to add additional understandings into your answer or further elaborate to show your knowledge:
Hong Kong is split between private and pubic sector
Public sector is heavily subsidized by the government
Private sector is funded by the users
In public sector, you will have to go through primary healthcare (generalist clinic) before secondary healthcare (specialist)
Public sector runs in a emergency first priority system. Those who have a more acute health risk will receive treatments immediately while non-emergency case will be pushed down the line.
What is it’s pros and cons
Pros:
As Hong Kong's public sector is heavily subsidized, it is able to achieve universal healthcare and all citizens will be able to enjoy medical services without the financial burden.
Cons:
The waiting time for public sector is notoriously long, the average waiting time for outpatient clinics could be up to 8 hours and the waiting time for non life-threatening surgery could be years. This will severely affect patient's quality of life. Large number of patient also cause the public sector to be over-stretched, healthcare workers may have to look after many patients at once.
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Due to this system, what kinds of healthcare issues are created in Hong Kong.
This question is similar to the question above, however it focuses on the issues of the system (only the cons). There are many issues you can talk about, long waiting time, stressful working environment for healthcare workers, decrease quality of healthcare due to overstretched manpower are a few examples. As the question are asking for "what kinds" of healthcare issue, it is best to give a few examples of issues that Hong Kong may encounter, while giving a brief explanation for each issue. Avoid only talking about a single issue as this may make it seem you can only think of a single problem and nothing else.
Compare Hong Kong primary versus secondary healthcare
This question is quite factual, as long as you have done your research, it should not be challenging. Hong Kong's primary healthcare are the public and private generalist clinics in or outside of hospitals. They are the first line of doctors you will see and they handle most of the simply medical cases. More serious cases though, will be referred by the doctors of primary healthcare to secondary healthcare, where you will consult a specialist doctor. This doctor can then offer you treatment directly or refer you to hospitals for surgery.
Describe another Healthcare system used by other countries around the world?
It is good to know more than one healthcare system. If you ever are in a position of administration in the future, you will be able to use this knowledge to improve the current system you are working under. A few of the more stand-out medical systems are the US, UK and Singapore's medical system. These system are too complicated for us to summarize within one paragraph here. US system is all private, UK is mainly public and Singapore has a very unique public sector. You are welcomed to choose one of them to further investigate.
What are the pros and cons of an universal healthcare system?
For this question, you should first briefly talk about the definition universal healthcare system, which in short is an affordable healthcare system for the entire pollution of a city/country. Note that this question does not specify Hong Kong, you are welcome to use any examples of an universal healthcare system to explains it's pros and cons. The pros and cons are quite similar to that of Hong Kong's medical system (Obviously, as long Hong Kong is a universal healthcare system), pros includes affordability and a centralized more easily regulated system, cons includes long waiting time, insufficient resources and harsh working environment for healthcare workers.
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