Public hospitals have come up with an innovative remedy for the shortage of doctors: bringing in overseas doctors without asking them to sit for a Hong Kong licensing exam. But some doctor groups oppose the plan, cautioning that the quality of medical care may suffer.
But is their opposition merely driven by self-interest?
The plan has divided the medical community, as the Hospital Authority moves to hire about 20 overseas doctors - Cantonese-speaking Hongkongers who received their medical training overseas.
'The authority should not go around the examination system; it is the gatekeeper of doctors' standards,' says Dr Samuel Kwok Po-yin, who convened a group of private specialists called The Concern Group on the Medical Service Standards.
But Tim Pang Hung-cheong, spokesman for the Patients' Rights Association, says doctors are putting their interests before the public's.
'Private doctors may worry that overseas doctors may eventually enter the private market and take away their business. They do not think much about the needs of the public,' Pang says. 'If the public does not bring in overseas doctors now, their waiting time will continue to be very long and doctors cannot have their work hours cut.'