Many Hongkongers studying medicine overseas would like to come home, the health secretary said on Wednesday to promote draft legislation aimed at encouraging their return to meet shortfalls in medical care.

Hundreds of Hongkongers were pursuing medical studies in Australia, the United Kingdom and other countries, and thousands were working in those places, Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan said.

The proposed legal changes to recognize their foreign medical degrees would appeal to them, she said in justifying the government’s attempt to amend the Medical Registration Ordinance.

Chan was elaborating on her Tuesday announcement to allow non-locally trained doctors to work in Hong Kong if they were permanent residents of the city, held recognized overseas medical degrees and worked at Hong Kong public hospitals for five years after obtaining specialist qualifications.

Hong Kong was in need of overseas doctors to fill vacancies in some specialty areas, Chan said in explaining the bill on radio on Wednesday.

Accepting non-locally trained Hong Kong doctors was only one solution to the problem, she said, as the government would also continue to increase the number of medical students, prevent manpower losses at the statutory Hospital Authority and develop public-private cooperation.

After the Tuesday announcement, critics claimed the government was bypassing the Medical Council by setting up a special registration committee that would vet doctors trained outside of Hong Kong. The committee would have no representatives from patient organizations or frontline doctors.

Chan nevertheless said that the membership of the committee would be comprehensive, including people from the council and the government’s Department of Health, as well as four to be appointed by the chief executive.

A basic requirement for overseas-trained doctors would be to know Cantonese and English, Chan said.

Medical-sector lawmaker Pierre Chan said the timing of the amendment bill was political as healthcare workers were busy with the pandemic. The government had not tried to convince the sector, and did not intend to, as it could do anything under the current political environment, where filibustering by lawmakers was impossible, Chan said.

He said that importing overseas doctors was not new given that, before the 1997 handover of the city from Britain to China, doctors trained in Commonwealth countries could work in Hong Kong without subjecting themselves to assessment.

In the past, medical schools in Commonwealth countries were mutually recognized, but the proposed legislation would unilaterally recognize qualifications from certain external schools without providing for further evaluation of the credentials, Chan added.

It was likely that the committee mentioned by the health secretary would include mainland Chinese schools in the list of approval, Chan said.

Hong Kong Public Doctors’ Association president Arisina Ma also said the lack of frontline doctors on the committee was an issue. An assessment test was the best way to know if a doctor was suitable to practice locally, she said.

Tim Pang, community organiser of the Patients’ Rights Association under the Society for Community Organization, said the legal changes would solve only a small part of the problem. More doctors were needed to shorten the wait for treatment at public hospitals, he said.

Overseas doctors were recognized at the point of obtaining their registrations, and it was unnecessary to be concerned about their Chinese or English skills, he said.

Pang also felt that the plan might not be attractive to overseas doctors as they would need to undergo six years of specialty training and five more years at public hospitals.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play