Health Matters | Paul Corrigan's blog

The good thing about the last few weeks is that the more that is said about the problems of the coming crisis in public expenditure, the more that it is recognised that the NHS cannot be excluded from its impact. Its true that because of the importance of the NHS there may be a smaller impact on the NHS than say transport, but there is still a recognition that the increases in money of the last few years will stop, but the increase in demand for health care will continue.
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So far the two posts I have made about my trip to Hong Kong concerned the way in which they were dealing with the swine flu outbreak that coincided with my visit.

The Conference I went to speak to – a Hong Kong hospital authority conference – was cancelled on the Friday evening I arrived. However, on Sunday, with several speakers having arrived, the Authority decided to hold a session where we would share with an audience from the Authority, the papers that we had prepared.
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I have been watching how a very different society deals with a public health scare.

The health of the public is a very different activity from running a health care system. Many health care systems including the NHS and the system in Hong Kong is primarily organised by the state. We develop policies, set up the architecture of the system create and maintain institutions and try and implement a state run system. That’s the way in which health care is usually organised and thought through.
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Every year – well nearly every year- Hong Kong Hospital Authority has a really good Conference about the developments in health and health care. Two years ago I was asked to give the keynote opening address on the progress in health care reform in the English NHS. I have a 5 year relationship with Hong Kong that amongst other things has given me an honorary relationship as the Adjunct Professor of Public Health at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. So two years ago I was both pleased and excited to start this conference off.
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