North Lantau Hospital, which opened just four years ago, is about to expand to meet the needs of Hong Kong’s growing aged population.

But the initial expansion will be to provide support services for the Hospital Authority (HA).

The authority is planning a support services centre that will carry out laundry, catering and data centre services for the city’s public hospitals. It will have capacity for 12.5 million meals and 27.5 million kg in laundry annually.

Services centre planned for vacant site on Yu Tung Rd

The city’s hospital services face a steep rise in demand over the next 20 years, with the population expected to grow 10% and the number of elderly residents forecast to nearly double, the HA said.

The HA can’t yet say what extra beds or medical services it will provide for Lantau residents.

It says the second phase of the development will be for capacity growth by using the residual portion of the reserved site.

The HA says it wants to begin work as soon as possible. The Islands District Council will discuss the plans at its scheduled meeting on Monday.