Undeniably, Hong Kong faces a crushing shortage of public doctors, as an increasing number go into private medicine for a lot more money. Increasing demand from rich mainlanders, who are drawn to the city's world-class medical care, has turned local private hospitals into medical service providers for them and greatly boosted the hospitals' business and resources.
In comparison, the public sector faces an acute shortage of doctors and a lack of human resources. As a result, public doctors work long hours with less money and a lot more pressure. So, it's not difficult to understand why there has been a huge migration from the public to the private sector.
Continuing staff shortages and insufficient resources in the public health care system have significantly increased workloads, which can trigger serious problems. This not only affects the quality of health care services, but also potentially endangers patients. The noticeable increase in medical errors and blunders in public hospitals in recent years could be related to the resource issue.
The problem has reached a critical point. Qualified staff in obstetrics and gynaecology, radiology and anesthesiology are in shortest supply.
The government must take immediate steps to raise budgets and hire more doctors, such as those in private practice who now only work part-time.
The Hospital Authority is also hiring overseas doctors to fill some vacancies in public hospitals. They are not required to sit the relevant licensing examination. This arrangement, to a great extent, looks after the professional interests of local doctors, but they still vehemently object to the stop-gap measure and demand that the authority drop it. The strongest resistance has come from private doctors.