District Health Centre Scheme was proposed in the Hong Kong SAR Chief Executive’s Policy Address in 2017 to promote individual and community involvement, enhance coordination among various medical and social sectors, and strengthen district‑level primary healthcare services. Through public-private partnership and medical social collaboration, DHC aims to enhance public awareness of disease prevention and their capability in self‑management of health, make use of the local network to procure services from organisations and healthcare personnel serving the district and eventually reduce the demand for hospitalisation. The main features offered by DHC include health promotion, disease prevention and screening, chronic disease management, and community rehabilitation. The first DHC is located in Kwai Tsing district. Sham Shui Po DHC has been launched in June 2021, and other district health centres are being set up in other districts progressively.

Our research team is commissioned by the government to monitor and evaluate the Kwai Tsing District Health Centre and Sham Shui Po District Health Centre. In a mixed method research grounded on implementation science, assessments have been made on the intervention components in the design and implementation factors in operationalizing of the scheme to inform policy decisions how the scheme can be modified and enhanced for effectiveness. The government issued a Primary Healthcare Blueprint in December 2022, and recommended to further develop a district-based family-centric community health system based on the District Health Centre model. This study will provide insights to enable the development of primary healthcare system in Hong Kong.