The Hong Kong Hospital Authority announced Friday that the booking for delivery in public hospitals will be closed immediately for non-local pregnant women with expected delivery dates from April till the end of the year.

An HA spokesman said the decision was made to ensure the adequate provision of maternity services for local expectant mothers.

"The increasing trend of local pregnant women giving birth in public hospitals is projected to continue this year. In the light of this increasing trend, proactive measures have to be implemented to ensure that the available capacity in public hospitals would be sufficient to meet the demand from local pregnant women. It is therefore necessary for the HA to suspend the delivery booking for non-local women from now on until the end of December 2011," said the spokesman.

The number of babies born to Chinese mainland mothers in Hong Kong rose from 13,000 in 2004 to more than 40,000 in 2010, making 45 percent of the total number of newborns. According to the Basic Law of Hong Kong, Chinese citizens born in Hong Kong have the right of abode, which partly resulted in an influx of mainland mothers giving birth in Hong Kong.

However, the number of non-local women giving birth in public hospitals has been reduced by 10.5 percent in 2010 compared with that in 2006 whilst the number of local women increased by 13.5 percent in the same period.

The spokesman said that was because a series of measures for maternity services have been implemented in public hospitals since February 1, 2007 to ensure sufficient places for local pregnant women as well as managing the demand of non-local women.

At the same time, the maternity services saw a fast expansion in the private hospitals, largely due to the demand of mainland mothers, which, according to the HA, had lured many public doctors into private practice.

The Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Wednesday said a decision on the number of pregnant women Hong Kong hospitals can serve is expected to be made in the next two months.

"I think we are in the process of negotiating with both the public and private sectors to determine what is the optimum number for each sector and also perhaps for each hospital as well," he said.

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