Health care crisis needs planned solutions, not piecemeal fixes

I refer to the comments made by Secretary for Food and Health Dr York Chow Yat-ngok after his visit to hospitals ('Health officials visit hospitals amid threat of doctors' strike', March 1).

It is disheartening to keep reading about the woes of the doctors and nurses in newspapers - but more so to read about the so-called solutions proposed by the Hospital Authority for the crisis at hand.

I cannot understand how and why time and again those in authority close the barn door only after the horse has bolted.

This resource crisis has been brewing for a long time.

While band-aids (like enhancing career paths, paying more and employing part-time and retired doctors) no doubt help in the short term, they are blatantly inadequate.

What we really need is to urgently review the whole human resources approach to the profession and to overhaul inefficient policies and practices if necessary. To coin a phrase, it is insane to expect that things will turn out differently if you keep doing what you have been doing.

Failing to undertake this review will only increase the intensity of the problem, which does nothing for the already low morale of the medical profession, particularly for those who consider it a calling and would like to make a difference to the standard of patient care in Hong Kong.