In 2005, there were 1.128 million inpatient and day patient discharges and 5.98 million specialist outpatient attendances. Accident and emergency departments of major public hospitals had 2.049 million attendances, or 5 614 per day.

The international trend has been to focus on the development of ambulatory and community care programmes. In 2005, the authority continued to step up training for family physicians, community paediatricians, community physicians, general practitioners and community allied health practitioners to support the development of the community mode of healthcare delivery. Authority staff members made 791 200 home visits to provide community nursing services and attended to elderly and psychiatric outreach patients on 722 200 occasions. The authority also continued to implement its community-based programmes on fall prevention and hypertension control. To strengthen its ambulatory services, the authority remodelled the Tang Shiu Kin Hospital into an ambulatory care centre which was completed in early 2005.

Several hospital development programme projects were completed — the redevelopment of Castle Peak Hospital (Phase 2), the establishment of a radiotherapy centre and redevelopment of the accident and emergency department at Princess Margaret Hospital and the remodelling of the Tuen Mun Polyclinic Building into an ophthalmic centre. Major ongoing projects included the redevelopment and expansion of Pok Oi Hospital, the redevelopment of staff quarters at Tuen Mun Hospital into a rehabilitation block and the construction of a new infectious disease centre attached to Princess Margaret Hospital.