Hospital Authority To Host Recruitment Day In London

The Hospital Authority (HA) is looking to attract medical professionals in the United Kingdom to come work in Hong Kong via a recruitment day scheduled in London next month.

RTHK’s learned that Chief Executive of HA, Tony Ko, will attend an event held by the Hong Kong Medical Society of the United Kingdom (HKMSUK) on April 1 in London to explain details of how overseas doctors could practise in the SAR.

The next day, HA will hold a recruitment day for medical students, interns, trainees as well as specialists, with job offer for eligible participants to be arranged on site or online.

Jocelyn, a medical student who grew up in Hong Kong and is studying in the UK, told RTHK that she is planning to attend the events on both days, as she hopes to serve Hongkongers after she obtains her license in the UK.

“In the UK, they provide regular training for doctors, and I would like to know whether there’re similar trainings in Hong Kong. [Doctors] spend time on research and on teaching medical students. I want to see if Hong Kong provides any of these for freshly graduated doctors,” she said.

But she said she hopes authorities will do more to help non-locally trained doctors get used to working in Hong Kong, such as language support.

“When it comes to explaining a medical condition, it wouldn’t be a problem if I do it in English because this is what I learned in school, but I might struggle a bit if I have to explain in Chinese to patients. I need to spend some time to practise,” she said.

Another medical student told RTHK that he’s not looking to work in Hong Kong in the near future because of the heavy workload.

Alex Lam, chairman of the concern group Hong Kong Patients' Voice, said doctors can gain valuable experience working in the public healthcare system.

"Working conditions in public hospitals may be relatively poor, as there may be more cases to handle. However, there is also an advantage to it, as they will have more opportunities to gain experience," he said.

Lam urged the government to provide more incentives, such as housing allowance, for non-locally trained doctors to come.