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Face the truth: the shortage of medical professionals is a fact
Resistance to reform of the medical sector is futile and, worse, dangerous; all avenues, including the recruitment of talent from overseas, must be taken seriously
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One problem of dealing with a serious shortage of medical and health professionals facing Hong Kong within a decade is that some major players cannot agree that there necessarily is one. If you accept the Food and Health Bureau’s assessment of 13 health professions in a strategic review of manpower planning, there is no question about it. The review models future demand and supply in an ageing society to chart worsening shortages of health professionals. It predicted a manpower crisis in nine professions, including doctors, dentists, general nurses and therapists.
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Doctors would be the most affected, with nurses not far behind. The shortage of doctors has already prompted the suggestion of overseas recruitment. This remains a controversial topic among local practitioner groups, with Medical Association president Dr Gabriel Choi Kin saying the report exaggerated the shortage. He also said it failed to accurately estimate the capacity provided by doctors in the private sector, although it is not clear how it should be mobilised and how much difference it might make. Medical sector lawmaker Dr Pierre Chan said the report also failed to address the uneven distribution of manpower among public hospitals and actually expressed fears of a future surplus of doctors because of an increase in medical graduates.
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