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2.4 Land i s Not Suffic ient, but

Necessary

It should be reiterated that we do not attempt to establish the
discourse that each and every socioeconomic problem is originated from
and could be solved solely by land supply.

However, we hold that land supply is a critical and necessary
element in the set of policy solutions to many, if not all, of our social and
economic problems. In the particular case of the healthcare system,
whilst enhancement and optimisation are essential and necessary, we
do not believe that these measures alone without sufficient land for
capacity expansion, would be enough to cope with our social needs on the
grounds that (1) the growth in demand that we are dealing with is not in
percentages, but in multiples as we have demonstrated above; and more
importantly, (2) our healthcare system is already at the brink of collapse
now.

Whilst the government and the public have focused primarily
on land supply for housing for the past few years, little, if not none, was
discussed concerning the land supply to build space both for our economic
and social developments. It should not be overlooked that the construction
of a large scale public hospital could take up to a decade to complete. If
plans are not devised now, it is highly unlikely that we will be able to catch
up with the rocketing medical demand, not to mention other elderly care
facilities including nursing homes and district-based community care
centres, which are all in severe shortage now.

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