A brain drain of surgeons is affecting the quality of care of public medicine in Hong Kong, says the city's father of liver transplants.
To keep more doctors from leaving, Professor Fan Sheung-tat proposes that public doctors be allowed to make extra money by treating private patients.
At the University of Hong Kong, for which Fan is head of surgery for Queen Mary Hospital in Pok Fu Lam, at least 10 of about 100 surgeons have switched to private practice in the past two years. Among them were four consultants and senior doctors. The team consists of doctors from the university's medical school and the Hospital Authority.
'Although there's been no serious interruption to clinical services, the brain drain has to a certain degree affected the quality of care since we have lost some experienced doctors,' Fan said.
The Hospital Authority predicts that the turnover of doctors will rise from 4.4 per cent in the last financial year to 6.8 per cent this financial year, a five-year high.
Fan's recommendation comes as the government tries to reform health care to encourage more people to buy private medical insurance. The government wants to introduce a voluntary medical scheme to cover at least 500,000 people.