Angry frontline doctors are threatening to take industrial action over the Hospital Authority's failure to tackle heavy workloads and poor morale resulting from high staff turnover, the union president said yesterday.
Dr Loletta So Kit-ying, president of the Public Doctors' Association, said the union was considering a 'sit-in or work-to-rule protest'.
However, in response to the threat by the biggest union of public doctors, the authority yesterday announced eight emergency measures to cope with the crisis.
'We don't need any sweet-talking [from health officials], we need some concrete measures,' So said before the new measures were announced.
Some of the frustrated doctors proposed abandoning clerical duties such as writing medical reports, adhering to a reasonable consultation time for patients, such as 30 to 45 minutes for each new case, and taking at least a 45-minute lunch break.
In reaction to the threat, the authority said last night it would create senior posts for junior doctors, hire part-time retired doctors to work at outpatient clinics, and redeploy staff from other specialities to help the overloaded internal medicine departments, which would also be allocated more trainee positions. It would also hire more health care assistants to take blood samples from patients, employ more clerical staff and provide special allowances to doctors on night shifts. The authority also said it would deploy at least 12 doctors to Tuen Mun Hospital by July to relieve the shortage.
