Hospital Authority eases maternity bed restrictions

Mainland wives of local men who migrated to Hong Kong on one-way permits are to be permitted to make bookings to have their babies at local private hospitals.

Expectant mainland mothers married to permanent residents have been permitted to reserve maternity beds at private hospitals since April 25. The Food and Health Bureau announced the extension of the policy on Friday.

Couples will be required to present proof of identity, and authorize the government to verify their marital status, if necessary.

Ko Wing-man, a veteran doctor who is expected to head the bureau in the incoming administration, said he believed local mothers-to-be will not be affected by the policy extension.

Mainland-Hong Kong Families Rights Association Organizer Tsang Koon-wing welcomed the extension, saying the barrier on expectant mothers has been lifted. The association is handling the cases of 12 women who fall into the extended category. Eleven of them live in Hong Kong. Tsang believes there are fewer than 100 cases of expectant mothers who are married to men yet to receive permanent residency status.

The government remains firm on its policy to refuse entry to Hong Kong to women who are 28 weeks or more into their pregnancies if they fail to provide booking certificates.

"To protect the safety of expectant mothers and their babies, the government does not encourage or allow non-local women who are at an advanced stage of pregnancy and without prior booking of obstetrics service and adequate ante-natal checkups to give birth in Hong Kong," said the bureau spokesman.

Tsang is concerned that delivery fees, ranging from HK$60,000 to HK$100,000, at private hospitals are too high for grassroots families. He said the association will keep fighting for the same maternity charges at private hospitals as public ones, which are now set at HK$39,000 for non-local women.

Sun Xiaoli's husband has lived in Hong Kong for six years. The couple's second child is due in October. Before the announcement, the couple was anxious that Sun would be unable to find a bed at a private hospital and had even considered last-minute delivery at a public hospital.

Now that access to a maternity bed has been addressed, come the skyrocketing fees. Sun's first child was born at a public hospital two years ago, when the fee was less than HK$40,000. The family still has to repay the money borrowed for the first baby and now needs to save more or borrow again for the second. Sun's husband earns less than HK$10,000 a month.

The government decided to stop issuing hospital bookings to mainland mothers-to-be with no marital ties to permanent residents for delivery from 2013.

Tsang said public hospitals should be able to offer obstetrics services packages to mainland wives of Hong Kong residents next year, since they will not provide service to mainland women whose husbands are also mainlanders.