'Control number of mainland births in HK'_美文

'Control number of mainland births in HK'

Hong Kong should take measures to curb the rapidly rising number of mainland women delivering babies in the special administrative region, political advisers said.

"Mainland women having babies in emergency rooms seriously endangers both the mothers and health workers in Hong Kong," Anthony Wu, chairman of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, told China Daily.

Being born in Hong Kong means the baby will get Hong Kong permanent residency, something many mainlanders want their children to have.

Some 1,219 mothers from the mainland gave birth to babies in emergency rooms in Hong Kong in 2011, nearly triple the amount in 2010.

Among them was an HIV-positive mother whose condition was detected after the labor, said Wu, who is also a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee.

In 2011, of the 44,000 mainland women who gave birth in Hong Kong, 33,000 went to private hospitals, official statistics showed.

In fact, the quota for private hospitals remains unchanged. They prefer mainland mothers because they have higher incomes, Wu said.

Currently, a natural birth costs nearly HK$40,000 at private hospitals.

"Our department only has control over public hospitals and only the Hong Kong government can talk to private ones about a limit," he added.

"We've kept most of the maternity beds at public hospitals for local mothers, but there are frequent complaints about a strain on beds at private ones," Wu said.