Public Sector Mandate To Cover Dentists, Nurses: Lo

The Health Secretary, Lo Chung-mau, has revealed that the government's plan to require medics to spend time in the public sector will cover all doctors, nurses and dentists.

Chief Executive John Lee put forward the idea in his Policy Address last month as a means to alleviate a manpower shortage in public hospitals.

"This [plan] is not limited to specialists, it can also include dentists, nurses and others, but we will discuss with different professionals on what they need," Lo told a Legco meeting on Friday.

The health minister added that the arrangement provides good training for young doctors, as they’d be able to deal with more cases in the public system.

Lawmakers at the panel on health services also discussed the government's epidemic response, a day after officials announced an end to vaccine pass checks at some venues.

New People's Party lawmaker Regina Ip described the government’s dialing back of Covid restrictions as getting confusing.

"I think they're very complicated, it took me a long time to read your press release, really, regular residents also find they're very complicated," she said.

Ip's views were shared by election committee legislator Doreen Kong, who told an RTHK programme that while she welcomes the relaxation, people might be confused by the change in arrangements every other week.

She also questioned whether the degree of easing is enough to help people resume their normal life or revive the economy.

Lo, for his part, explained that the government does not want to "recklessly" remove all restrictions just to have to reintroduce them when the pandemic worsens.