More Non-Local Doctors Approved for Limited Practice in Hong Kong

Winnie Yu, chairwoman of the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance, speaks during a strike at the Hospital Authority building in Hong Kong calling for the government to close its border with mainland China to contain the new coronavirus epidemic, on Feb. 7, 2020. (Philip Fong/AFP via Getty Images)

Under the big wave of Hongkongers exodus, the HK medical staff are not an exception, many are leaving as the political environment worsens. Henry Fa Hung-ling Chair of the Hospital Authority said in June that 7.9 percent of doctors and 9 percent of nurses left Hong Kong government hospitals between April 2021 to April 2022. This amounts to 500 full-time doctors and 2,600 nurses. He said the figures are increasing recently and it is a worrying situation.

The total employment of full-time doctors and nurses in Hong Kong government hospitals is 6,329 and 28,888 respectively.

Seeing the severe loss of medical professionals, the authorities have been trying to introduce more doctors to Hong Kong including those from mainland China.

The HA said on Sept. 7, it was notified by the Medical Council of Hong Kong, that it has confirmed and approved the applications of three more non-locally trained doctors for limited practice registration. Among them, two are new applications and the other is an application renewal. They will serve in the internal medicine, ophthalmology, and radiology wards in public hospitals.

A spokesperson for the HA said that to alleviate the workload of frontline doctors in public hospitals, the recruitment of non-locally trained doctors will continue in the future. The HA will arrange for qualified applicants to be interviewed by the relevant clinical departments. On behalf of the successful interviewees, the HA will apply for limited practicing registration to the Medical Council in accordance with the time when they are available to perform their duties in Hong Kong.

There are currently 44 non-locally trained doctors on limited practice registration, all of whom work within public hospital departments that suffer chronic staff shortages, such as anaesthesiology, cardiothoracic surgery, emergency department, family medicine, internal medicine, neurosurgery, obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology, pediatrics, radiology, and surgery.

Now, the HA recruits non-locally trained doctors as resident doctors for all specialties. For those suffering the most serious loss of specialist physicians, they will also recruit qualified non-locally trained doctors as associate consultants.

The Hospital Authority has extended the retirement age for doctors and nurses to 65, resulting in a combined total of 960 doctors and nurses that would have retired, to continue employment.