A hospital might not be a conventional place for an accountant or an information technology professional to establish a career, but the Hospital Authority is welcoming what it calls the 'enabling professionals' to join.
Among some 45,000 employees of the authority are at least 300 information technology (IT) staff, 200 accountants and finance professionals, 150 human resources (HR) personnel, 50-odd librarians and statisticians, and at least 80 cooks and chefs. Despite the financial tsunami, the authority will be hiring about 20 accountants and a few more IT staff, the fastest-growing section in the authority.
'We offer some good careers for the non-clinical professionals,' said David Rossiter, head of HR at the authority. 'Most people don't realise these careers exist in public health care. When they think of health care professionals, they think of doctors, nurses and allied health. But behind all the clinical professionals there is a range of other professionals helping to make it happen.'
With the government's initiative for electronic health records, the IT department will be hiring more staff. 'We have a good collection of exceptionally good IT people and we are growing,' said Mr Rossiter, an Australian who joined the authority 61/2 years ago.
The authority also has a couple of hundred IT contract staff who do programme work, and it is looking at the department's salary structure. 'We are reviewing the career structure in IT because we want to make sure that we are attractive and competitive,' he said. 'They basically have some streams in which they could be promoted through management, through technical or supporting streams.'
Overall, the authority's package is competitive, with pay very much in line with the market rate. He said he believed the provident fund was generous, and employees enjoyed better medical benefits.
The authority not only needs IT professionals but also accountants.