Doctors Join To Oppose New Rules On Non-local Medics

Front-line doctors, medical students and non-governmental organisations have joined forces to oppose a government proposal to make it easier for doctors trained outside of the SAR to return here to practise medicine.

They said the proposal – to allow Hong Kong permanent residents to practice here without taking a licensing exam, after working in the public sector for five years – could lower medical standards and divert resources from local talent.

Medical sector lawmaker, Dr Pierre Chan, said he believes the scheme is politically motivated, to open the doors to more mainland-trained doctors to practise medicine in Hong Kong.

The group said 16 percent of mainland graduates have passed the local licensing exam in previous years, while 40 percent of graduates from England, American, Canada, Australia and Germany make the grade.

Chan said a list of approved medical schools outside of Hong Kong being drawn up by the authorities likely won’t exclude many mainland institutions, in contrast to a similar list of designated schools used in Singapore.

"In Singapore's list, they exclude most of the universities in mainland China, cut it to only four out of more than 220 in mainland China. But it is not politically correct in Hong Kong.

Dr James Fung, an honorary secretary of the Hong Kong Medical Association, said just because someone graduates from a particular school doesn’t necessarily mean they have what it takes.

He said the standard licensing exam is the best way to evaluate talent.

"We actually merit this fairness, because it is a measurement of individual merit,” he said.

The chairman of the Federation of Doctors Union Dr Johnson Sin, expressed concerns that a possible influx of non-locally-trained doctors would make it harder for local graduates to get the hands-on training they would need to become specialists.

He estimated that the length of the training process for specialists could rise from an average of six years at present, to ten.

Medical Association president Gabriel Choi said while many in the profession want to speak out against the proposal, they won’t be doing anything more like staging sit-ins.

"[With] the political climate as such, we can at most speak up… We can inform the public that this is not the best way. “

“But other than that ... I remember us going to sit-ins and so on. I think this might not be possible, because if we have more than three coming together , then we would be caught and thrown into jail,” he said.