Indebted CU Medical Centre 'to break even soon'
The loss-making Chinese University Medical Centre, which has borrowed billions from the government, said it is confident it would break even in the next financial year starting July. The medical centre borrowed around HK$4 billion from the government, but was allowed to postpone its loan repayment for two years to at least 2025 because of the impact of the pandemic. At a Legco panel meeting on Friday, the centre’s CEO Fung Hong told lawmakers that its finances are improving with a steady growth in admissions over the past year. The facility earned HK$955 million in revenues between July and December last year. The loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation during the same period was HK$170 million, about 21 percent higher than expected. "This loss cannot be further narrowed due to the higher costs in medications and medical supplies. Prices went up faster than expected in the second half of the year," Fung said. "But the medical centre has enough cost control measures to ensure in the second half of the year and the financial year of 2024-2025 we can break even." Fung added that the centre was working with insurance companies and offering more packaged charging services to grow its business. Health minister Lo Chung-mau said authorities will look at the centre's books next year before deciding whether to ask Legco to approve a further three-year repayment extension.