Hong Kong's two medical schools are seeking permission to take in up to a quarter more students amid a serious shortage of health care manpower.
Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok had said the government's health reform would increase demand for doctors and nursing. The University Grants Committee was expected to decide on an increase soon after consulting with the medical schools, and the government would announce the number, he said.
Places for medical students have been scaled back over the past decade. The University of Hong Kong and Chinese University want the total raised from the current 250 to a previous level of at least 320. The Hospital Authority, which employs more than 4,700 doctors, projected that it needed an additional 449 to 485 a year over the next four years.
However, with the number of total medical graduates decreasing from 310 this academic year to 280 next year, and further to 250 a year after, there would still be a yearly shortfall of between roughly 100 and 200.
The schools have warned that the manpower shortage has been compromising the quality of service.
Doctors at public clinics have complained they have only five minutes on each consultation, and patients complain of long waiting times for consultations or surgery.
The dean of medicine at the University of Hong Kong, Raymond Liang Hin-suen, said the shortage of doctors was getting worse. 'This year, our number of medical graduates will for the first year drop to 125; it means the shortage will be even more noticeable this year.
