Doctors Attend 'too Many Meetings': Expert

The Dean of Hong Kong University's Faculty of Medicine, Gabriel Leung, on Monday slammed the Hospital Authority for having “too much bureaucracy”, saying the problem may have affected the clinical work of frontline medical staff, and patients’ well-being.

Speaking at a media gathering, the public health expert said he understands that doctors may not be able to spend enough time looking after patients because they also have to attend various meetings and handle administrative work.

He said the Hospital Authority seems to have developed “a culture of meetings” in recent years - which are sometimes unnecessary and duplicated. Dr Leung said he hopes the Authority will address its governance problems.

He added that he believes there's a very large and growing imbalance between the supply of and demand for, frontline medical staff at public hospitals. But as to whether there's a need to introduce foreign doctors to help ease the shortage of medical staff, Dr Leung said this is a political issue and he would leave that discussion to others.

In response, Food and Health Secretary Sophia Chan said she thinks the Hospital Authority should review its governance structure if frontline staff had issues with it.

She said she understands that medical staff didn’t want to attend too many meetings during the winter flu surge, and said she believes the Hospital Authority was aware of their concerns.

Chan added that she had already asked the Authority's human resources teams to streamline some of their administrative procedures when medical staff applied for overtime pay.

The Hospital Authority said their headquarters and different clusters would try their best to reduce meeting times, or delay non-urgent meetings, to allow medical staff to focus on their clinical work. It said they would also review their policy regularly to makes sure meetings run smoothly and efficiently.