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Mortuary charges set to be introduced in Hong Kong public hospitals next year could unfairly penalise families for delays in after-death arrangements, a funeral business association has argued, despite authorities saying those with financial difficulties will not have to pay. The funeral sector on Thursday criticised new measures gazetted last week that would introduce fees for mortuary services that are currently free at public hospitals. The tiered fee structure, set to take effect on January 1 next year, would ensure that storage remained free for the first three days after a death. The daily charge would then increase incrementally - HK$100 (US$13) per day from day four; HK$200 from day 18; and HK$550 from day 34 onwards. The authority confirmed that the new rates were determined after considering hospital operations and the cost of similar services in the market. But Cheng Chi-kit, chairman of the Funeral Business Association, said the free period should be extended to around a month, as it could take three to five days for the government to process papers, while the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department cremation slot has a 15-day guarantee. “Within this framework, there’s actually a chance that for residents, the entire process could take 20 days,” he told a radio show on Thursday. While moving bodies out of public hospitals to be stored at funeral parlours was an option, it was rarely done and not a feasible, long-term solution, he added. “It happens, but only on an individual basis [...] I believe all the funeral parlours combined do not have enough capacity to match the number of spaces in the public hospital mortuaries.” Cheng said the industry typically saw families requesting for faster processing and rarely encountered abuse in the system. He noted that the government had not consulted the industry before its announcement, and many in the sector only learned about the new measures after they were gazetted. On Wednesday, the Hospital Authority clarified that there would be a fee waiver in the mortuary charges for patients and their families with financial difficulties. “To take into account the needs of some residents with financial difficulties, the authority will establish a waiver mechanism for mortuary service charges,” a spokesman said. Under the plan, deceased patients who were recipients of benefits such as Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) or Old Age Living Allowance would be granted full exemption from the new mortuary charges. Apart from those on benefits, if a patient already qualified for full or partial medical fee waivers from public hospitals during their lifetime, their families would receive corresponding full or partial reductions in the mortuary charges after death. Families facing financial hardship when settling the administrative charge could seek direct assistance from the hospital, which would then help them apply for an exemption based on their circumstances. The mandatory waiting period for a Coroner’s Court examination would also not incur any charge. The government had said the introduction of the new mortuary fees was in response to concerns over resource use. Citing recent data, the Hospital Authority noted that around 10 per cent of bodies remained in public hospital mortuaries for over a month, with some cases even exceeding a year. It prompted a review to improve the deployment of public resources. The government on October 31 gazetted changes to broader public healthcare fees in a reform of charges. A HK$10,000 cap on annual medical fees will be introduced to strengthen patient protection. But the mortuary service fee, categorised as an administrative charge, would not be covered by the new cap, as authorities explained that the mortuary served as a transitional facility for storing bodies, and families should make burial arrangements for the dead as soon as possible.
