NOW that the Secretary for Health and Welfare Elizabeth Wong Chien Chi-lien has publicly admitted a nursing shortage exists, and even the Hospital Authority has done so indirectly by stepping up its recruitment advertising, there can be no more excuses for doing nothing fundamental about it.
Recruitment advertising alone is not a serious attempt to get to grips with the problem. If there are nurses out there waiting to be recruited, they are certainly aware their skills are wanted. What is needed is for the Government, the Hospital Authorityand the nursing unions to sit down together and work out precisely what else is required to make hospital work an attractive option again.
Money alone is not going to be enough. Not, at least, if it is only to be pumped into nurses' pay. No doubt extra money would be a welcome bonus on top of other improvements.
But one thing that has been largely absent from the debate has been the question of remuneration. Working conditions are more important. Nurses are working long hours in public hospitals where conditions are probably almost as unpleasant for them as for the patients they serve.
But crucial to the whole enterprise is the matter of training. Every year large numbers of nurses leave the profession in Hong Kong because they are dissatisfied with the opportunities for improving their own qualifications and specialised knowledge. Those that wish to remain in nursing and make a decent career of it must go abroad for training. As a result, those who do remain in the hospital service will continue to be poorly trained and the status of the profession will continue to be low. That can only be bad for morale and ultimately also for patient care.
It is into improving conditions, training and career prospects that government money needs to be directed. Without it, the nursing shortage can only continue to worsen.
