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Ella Lee

Hospital Authority plans lighter workload to resolve dispute

Doctors in public hospitals might be contracted to work a maximum of 65 hours a week  as one of the Hospital Authority's measures to improve staff morale and  end  a drawn-out labour dispute.

The authority will also announce in a week or two 'concrete' measures to cut doctors' working hours.

Plans discussed at an internal authority board meeting yesterday included hiring more doctors, reforming on-call duties and improving work efficiency.

The authority will set up a steering committee, which aims to cut doctors' working hours to 75 hours a week in 18 months and  to 65 hours in 36 months.

The authority's director [professional services and operations] Cheung Wai-lun said yesterday the organisation was 'exploring the possibility' of specify working hours for doctors in their contracts.

He said about 1,000 of the 4,730 public doctors were working more than 65 hours a week.

'We think 65 hours is a reasonable figure. We are talking about a doctor who needs to work 10 hours a day for four days and a 24-hour on-site call duty,' he said.

Dr Cheung said the authority would make sure medical services were not affected by reducing doctors' hours.

'To achieve this target, the authority needs extra resources to hire more doctors.  We also have to improve work efficiency,'  Dr Cheung said.

But Public Doctors Association president Shea Tat-ming said frontline doctors had not been consulted.

Dr Shea said Hong Kong should follow the example of Britain and Australia, where doctors worked up to 56 hours a week. The European Commission guideline was 44 hours a week.

'In fact, no one has told us where the figure of 65 comes from,' he said.

Authority board member and medical legislator Kwok Ka-ki said the authority should consult frontline doctors before setting a target.

A total of 165 doctors have sued the authority, seeking payment for overtime and work on holidays. The court ruled in March that while they could claim compensation for working on rest days and statutory holidays, they could not expect compensation for overtime.

Under the HK$629 million settlement package introduced in June, doctors would receive one-off payments of HK$61,000 to HK$222,000 for an average of two to six months' non-payment of their work on statutory and public holidays and rest days between January 2000 and last December.

The payout covers 4,733 full-time serving doctors and 1,737 who have left the authority.

Dr Cheung said yesterday that 43 per cent of  doctors had been offered compensation of HK$100,000 or more, while 600 doctors had been offered more than HK$200,000.

The association has appealed to its members not to accept the offer until the authority stipulates maximum working hours in employment contracts and takes concrete steps to improve work conditions.



Doctors' week may be cut to 65 hours