More than 4,000 public doctors will be offered HK$8,000 to HK$100,000 compensation for being on off-site call duties on public holidays or days off in the past four years, under a Hospital Authority package to be discussed today.
The Court of Final Appeal ruled in October that public doctors were entitled to a day off if they were required to be on call on public holidays or their days off, even though they might not be needed.
The court held that a doctor was deprived of a rest day in such circumstances because he had to be close enough to the hospital to be able to get there within 30 minutes, could not drink alcohol and had to be ready to respond to calls. But it rejected doctors' claim for pay or time off for working overtime.
Since the October ruling, the authority has been negotiating with doctors on a settlement package. Under the latest proposal, put to a staff consultative group on Tuesday and to be discussed at a board meeting today, doctors are offered cash compensation according to seniority.
It will cover all off-site calls since 2006, as liability before that has been covered by a previous settlement.
Medical officers who seldom need to take off-site calls are offered HK$8,000 to just under HK$10,000. For medical officers with specialist qualifications, the amount will range to more than HK$30,000. It will increase further from senior medical officers to consultants and chiefs of services. The maximum amount is about HK$100,000 for an individual doctor. The total cost to the authority will be less than HK$300 million.