The public interest would be the top consideration for the Medical Council in deciding whether overseas doctors can work in the city's public hospitals without having to sit an examination, its chairwoman, Professor Felice Lieh Mak, said yesterday.
Responding for the first time to the plan by the Hospital Authority, she said it had a responsibility to maintain good service in the face of a staffing crisis. 'The authority's responsibility is to serve the public,' she said. 'If there are not enough local doctors, public hospitals may have to hire overseas doctors.'
The authority wants the council to provide 'limited registrations' for overseas plastic and cardiothoracic surgeons to ease the staffing crisis.
The plan, which would extend to other specialties, has triggered heated debate, with one council member saying it could cause the licensing system to collapse.
The Public Doctors' Association objects to the plan, saying it would take pressure off the authority to improve doctors' working conditions.
Lieh Mak said the association's concern was 'irrelevant' to the council. 'The Medical Council is neutral. Our basic principle is to protect the public interest,' she said.
Overseas doctors wanting to practise in Hong Kong have to sit a licensing examination but the council can exempt some and grant them limited registration. Of 171 doctors practising at present with such registration, 103 work at the two university medical schools, three at the Hospital Authority and one at the Health Department. The rest are primary-care doctors who were practising before 1964.
