Paperwork Burden Leaves Doctors 'demoralised'

Hong Kong's public hospital doctors are frustrated and demoralised as they deal with a huge clerical workload that gets in the way of dealing with patients, a veteran gastroenterologist and academic has warned.

Professor Joseph Sung, a former vice-chancellor of the Chinese University, said the weight of bureaucracy was getting in the way of dealing with patients. His comments come amid complaints of overwork and overcrowding at the city's under-pressure public hospitals.

"Even in their day-to-day hospital activities, doctors have to spend a lot of time working on the computer, coding, a lot of forms to fill in when you carry out a procedure," Sung said.

"There is a lot of clerical work before we can work with the patient. These kinds of non-patient-related activities make doctors feel that they are not really doing a medical job, and that's why I say this is demoralising.

"I think if we can be allowed to spend more time with our patients, really taking care of them or even just talking to them, then the relationship between doctors and patients."

The city's public hospitals have been in the spotlight in recent months, with wards filled beyond their capacity during the winter flu peak.

For years, the SAR's public hospital system has been struggling to fill vacancies as doctors leave for the lucrative private sector.

Support staff threatened a sit-in before agreeing an eight percent pay rise with the Hospital Authority last month.