The "Hong Kong Elderly Health Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Program" has recently been officially launched at Guangdong Qifu Hospital in Panyu, Guangzhou. Eligible Hong Kong seniors can use the medical voucher to pay for medical services in 40 designated departments of the hospital. At this point, the number of service points in mainland cities of the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area where "medical vouchers" can be used has increased to 15, benefiting over 1.78 million eligible elderly people in Hong Kong. On the first day of use, several Hong Kong elderly residents in mainland China went to Guangdong Qifu Hospital for consultation, and dozens of people opened "Medical Health Connect" accounts and successfully settled. Ms. He, a Hong Kong resident of Qifu New Estate in Panyu, Guangzhou, came to experience the "Head Soup" of the Hong Kong Elderly Health Voucher Greater Bay Area pilot program for the first time. She showed her Hong Kong ID card at the "Elderly Medical Voucher Special Window". The staff were proficient in the operation, and the authentication process was quickly completed. Then she easily completed the registration through WeChat official account. The whole process took 15 minutes from waiting for a doctor to making detailed inquiries to issuing drug prescriptions, and the cost was directly deducted with the Elderly Medical Voucher. The Hong Kong Elderly Health Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Scheme is a convenient policy launched by the Hong Kong SAR government in 2009, aimed at providing eligible Hong Kong elderly people aged 65 and above with an annual health voucher of HKD 2000 (with a cumulative limit of HKD 8000), allowing them to choose the medical services that best meet their health needs. In 2024, the Hong Kong SAR government began implementing the "Elderly Healthcare Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Program", expanding the scope of application of healthcare vouchers to nine mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area. In July of this year, the "Elderly Medical Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Program" added four service points, including Guangdong Qifu Hospital, Zhongshan Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Foshan First People's Hospital, and the Eighth Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University. To ensure a smooth and unobstructed medical experience for Hong Kong residents on the day of its launch, representatives from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government arrived at Guangdong Qifu Hospital to re-examine the system and observe the medical process of the elderly. Fan Jingwen, Senior Advisor of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government's Medical and Health Bureau (Director's Office), stated in an interview that when selecting pilot hospitals in mainland China for the "Hong Kong Elderly Health Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Program", the SAR government focuses on medical institutions in service areas with a high concentration of Hong Kong residents and medical services that are in line with Hong Kong. (New Society)