Necessary And Urgent To Bring In Outside Doctors: CS

Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung has defended the government’s plan to make it easier for residents train outside of Hong Kong as doctors to practise here, saying it is “important, necessary and urgent” to ease the serious manpower shortage especially in public hospitals.

Writing in his blog on Sunday, Cheung said increasing the number of students in local medical schools alone cannot solve the problem, because it takes time to train doctors and the capacity of medical schools is also limited.

His comments come just days after the government set up a committee to draw a list of up to a hundred medical schools abroad to allow their graduates to come practise in the SAR.

Hong Kong permanent residents who graduated from one of the chosen schools and registered as doctors outside of Hong Kong could come back and work here, as long as they find a job in a local public medical institution.

After they obtain specialist qualification in Hong Kong, they will have to work at the public medical institution for another five years before they can get full registration.

Critics worry that the quality of medical services might be affected if doctors trained in the mainland are allowed to work here, but the government says the committee would not take into account political factors when compiling the list.

A bill will be tabled at the Legislative Council on June 2.

Cheung said the government cannot sit on its hands over the problem, and made an appeal to doctors’ groups and the wider society to view the issue in an “objective, reasonable and pragmatic manner” and take into consideration the overall interests of Hong Kong.

Health Secretary Sophia Chan, meanwhile, sought to clarify what she called "misunderstandings" in her blog, dismissing suggestions that the government's proposal bypasses the Medical Council.

"I must stress that non-locally trained doctors will have to register with the council when they practise in Hong Kong and, like other local doctors, they will still be subject to the same disciplinary regulation," she wrote.

The health chief also said she won’t try to influence a committee that is tasked to draft a list of recognised medical schools – and would only interfere under special circumstances, such as the committee failing to complete the list within a reasonable period of time.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan also said a multi-pronged approach is needed to tackle the shortage of doctors and the current proposal is the most appropriate one.

He said although the government had been pumping resources into the public healthcare system, medium- to long-term measures, such as training for local doctors or building teaching facilities aren't sufficient to alleviate the problems.