Public hospitals in Hong Kong may stop admitting mainland mothers seeking to deliver their child in the territory to keep more resources for the use of local women.
Said senior Hospital Authority official Dr Cheung Wai-lun in a radio interview, "We are evaluating next year's quota for non-local pregnant women. There is a chance we might further lower it or we may even stop admitting them."
The Hong Kong government has already drastically reduced the quota of births set for non-local women in public hospitals from 10,000 to 3,400, but further cuts remain possible.
Meanwhile, mainland couples who deliver their second child in Hong Kong will be fined for violating the country's family planning policies, warned Zhang Feng, family planning department director of Guangdong province. And government employees found to breaking the law may even lose their jobs, he added.
"It doesn't matter if they give birth to their second child on the mainland or in other countries and regions, they have violated the country's policies and the province's regulations," said Zhang.
Guangdong couples form a significant proportion of the parents of the 41,000 mainland babies born in Hong Kong in 2010. Mainland babies formed some 47% of the 88,000 babies born in the special administrative region that year.
相关中文报道：
香港食物及卫生局局长周一岳8日表示，自从上月采取措施之后，内地孕妇冲关和冲急症室生小孩的情况有所改善，人数由高峰期的每星期40人下降到目前的十多人。周一岳说，如有需要会考虑取消内地孕妇到公立医院分娩的配额。
行政长官曾荫权上月公布四项措施，堵截内地孕妇来港产子。周一岳表示，在过去的3个星期，内地孕妇冲急症室分娩的个案下跌了二到三成。人数从去年平均每个星期的30到40人回落至十多人。但目前仍难以判断是否与当局采取的措施有关。
周一岳说：“在过去的大半年来，我们平均每个星期有30到40人，最高的时候有50多人，最低时候有20人左右。但在过去的3个星期，我们发觉数字降低至10多人，甚至是个位数。”
周一岳预计，今年内地孕妇分娩数字将由去年的4.3万个大减至约3.5万个，显示分娩配额见成效。今年香港本地孕妇生产率，政府预计会增加，医管局正考虑进一步削减内地孕妇的分娩配额，释放出更多的空间为本地孕妇提供服务，甚至完全禁止内地孕妇来港分娩；当局也会与私家医院商讨明年提供非本地孕妇的分娩名额，并要求其预留足够的名额及优先提供服务给本地孕妇。预计会在今年4月份公布明年接受非本地孕妇来港产子的数目。
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