Physician, heal thyself

For a change, the Hong Kong Medical Council, the body responsible for regulating the medical profession but seen more often as a guild protecting the interests of doctors, is doing something 'against' its constituents.

But the small step taken by the council to require general practitioners to undergo about 90 hours of training in three years as a pre-condition for renewing their practising certificates, is stirring up more than a storm in a tea cup. The move is opposed by three associations representing 7,000 doctors.

A look at the grounds for their grievances, however, shows that despite their education, doctors can be as impervious to reason as anyone in protecting their own welfare. They say suspension is a high-handed way of forcing doctors to study. But if doctors who do not bother to upgrade themselves can continue to practise, what incentives are there to encourage them to attend classes? The suggestion that market forces can motivate doctors to study is laughable; patients simply do not have the expertise to tell whether individual doctors have the latest medical knowledge or not.

The complaint that doctors practising in remote areas will have difficulties getting to classes held in urban areas is also ridiculous. Hong Kong is a small place and one can easily get from one end of the territory to another by public transport in an hour, and shorter if one has a car, as most doctors do.

Transport can be an issue only in big countries. But even in countries with vast spaces, such as the United States, continuing medical education has been made a mandatory requirement for practising doctors in many states. In Britain, there is even discussion about re-certification of doctors.

It is not as if local doctors are going to be subject to tough assessments. They will merely be required to attend courses or seminars. Even doing quizzes on the Internet will count as satisfying the requirements.