Secretary for Food & Health Dr York Chow has refuted suggestions the Government is ignoring "bottlenecks" in the healthcare system in a bid to push people to accept mandatory insurance.

Dr Chow told reporters after his Legislative Council session today a balance is needed between easing the burden on the public health sector and encouraging people to invest in health insurance. He said "whole system reform" is required and the Government has been busy dealing with the issue and striving for balance.

"Like any other public system, there is always a bottleneck if the service is heavily subsidised. The current way of handling bottlenecks is to have a good triage system so those in need will be looked after immediately. The system has been working very well," he said.

"We will be looking at different types and areas of bottleneck and see whether some injection of funds or resources are necessary, like the cataract programme that we have. So far almost 1,000 patients have undergone surgery under the programme and they are all quite satisfied with the outcome.

"We are not just looking at reforming the public system but also the private system. Whole system reform is important and that is why we have to have a lot of discussions and a lot of balancing required for the market reform as well as for professional unity to achieve the result."

Meanwhile, on compensation to chicken farmers, he said some criteria have been relaxed in what is a very reasonable and generous package. The Legislative Council Finance Committee will decide tomorrow whether the arrangement is feasible and funds will be released as soon as the proposal is passed.