Ken Chu

Opinion | Solution to Hong Kong’s doctor shortage should serve city in the long run

The latest legislative amendments proposed by the government to ease entry barriers for foreign-trained doctors deserve our support in principle, but our own medical students must not lose out on any opportunities

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The medical staff of Hong Kong’s Kwong Wah Hospital at work on March 6, 2019. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Ken Chu

Published: 5:30pm, 4 Sep 2021

The government has just proposed more changes to the Medical Registration Ordinance. These amendments, if passed before the end of the current legislative session in October, would open the door wider for non-locally trained doctors to work in Hong Kong, so as to ease the manpower crunch in public hospitals.

It goes without saying that Hong Kong faces a chronic shortage of doctors, with a doctor-to-population ratio below the average for OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. As a matter of fact, our public hospitals face an increasingly severe shortage of health care workers, including nurses.

Last month, Hospital Authority chairman Henry Fan disclosed turnover rates of 4.6 and 6.5 per cent among doctors and nurses from July 2020 to June 2021. This should be our wake-up call, and we should be considering every possible means to increase the supply of doctors and nurses.

Our rapidly ageing population will place a tremendous burden on our health care system, particularly our public hospitals and clinics.

Besides, the outflow of public health care workers will further increase the workload of existing staff, who might burn out and quit, choosing instead to work at private institutions offering better pay and working hours. Thus, the manpower shortage in our public hospitals could be exacerbated.

It is also feared that the overburdening of staff might lead to more medical accidents and negligence, as well as longer patient wait times.