The Pulse：End-of-Life care in Hong Kong

First the good news. Hongkongers have one of the world’s longest life expectancies. Now the not so good news. Hong Kong also has a low birth rate and an ageing population. More than a third of the population is already past retirement age moreover their number is projected to double in the next two decades. Long life however also involves low living standards and poor health. One in three older people live below the poverty line, and the government is simply not providing adequate care and services for their needs. On top of all this is the final frontier: a deep-rooted cultural taboo over talking frankly about dying.
In part one we looked at how there just aren’t enough hospice or palliative care facilities in the medical system, and we saw that the public is largely ignorant of the availability of these facilities. Those caring for the terminally ill or very old people are subject to a great deal of mental pressure that in turn affects their well-being. Once people tended to die at home. Now 90% of Hongkongers will expire in medical institutions surrounded by medical technology. Among the reasons are the high cost of in-home palliative care and barriers such as legal issues.
On Monday, two coordinated double suicide bombings in Kabul, Afghanistan killed 36 people and injured another 45. Among them were nine journalists. On the same day, in a separate incident, a BBC reporter was shot dead in the eastern province of Khost. Reporters Without Borders said the attack was the worst of its kind against Afghan journalists “since the fall of the Taliban government in December 2001.”
We’ll end on that sombre note. Goodbye.