MAINLAND doctors could be practising in Hong Kong after 1997 without needing to pass a licentiate exam - if an amendment to the Medical Registration Ordinance is not tabled quickly.
Legislator Dr Leong Che-hung issued the warning, saying he feared that if a proposed new system was not operating by 1997 then China might amend the existing system to suit mainland medics.
China has said it will honour the Basic Law by allowing professions in Hong Kong - including the medical profession - to retain their own registration and licensing systems after the handover.
Under the proposed system, all doctors from non-Hong Kong universities, including those from the mainland, will have to pass a licentiate exam in order to practise here.
Currently, doctors from Britain and other Commonwealth countries are allowed to practise here without having to sit an exam, although the amendment would introduce a universal licensing examination.
Dr Leong said the new system should be up and running by 1997.
He said: 'If we don't have the universal licensing system in place by the handover we might find that the current exam exemption for Commonwealth countries is replaced by an exemption for China.
