Foreign doctors quit Hong Kong public hospitals over licence red tape
Overseas medical specialists say they are leaving scheme to bolster public hospitals as it is too hard to get permanent Hong Kong license
A programme to recruit overseas doctors to ease the chronic manpower shortage at public hospitals is seeing an exodus of talent as at least three of the 11 specialists currently working under the scheme have decided to leave.
The scheme made it too difficult for doctors educated outside of Hong Kong to become permanent practitioners locally, said one Australian specialist who plans to return to his home country next year.
The Australian specialist said that, in a bid to protect jobs for local doctors, the Medical Council created an unfair scheme that would fail to attract the overseas talent it was supposed to.
"I am now leaving with a tinge of sadness," said the doctor, who has worked in a public hospital on Hong Kong Island for two years.
He said the licensing examination made no sense for a specialist, who would have already completed seven years of training after they became a doctor.
"Most of us have families to support and hard-earned specialist careers that we need to continue to develop, and as much as we would like to, we can neither financially nor professionally afford to continue in Hong Kong with the current process required for general registration by the Medical Council," he said.
The scheme, established in 2011, allows doctors educated abroad to take jobs at public hospitals in Hong Kong on a special licence valid for a year. The licence must must be renewed annually by the Medical Council.