Opinion | A solution to Hong Kong’s public health crisis is in the hands of its doctors

In the spirit of public service, they must drop their objection to overseas-trained professionals, which in the short term remains the only viable solution to the manpower shortage in Hong Kong’s public hospitals

Reading Time:3 minutes

The government has pledged billions in support of our overstretched health care system, but money alone cannot solve the problem. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 9:00am, 22 Mar 2019Updated: 10:41am, 22 Mar 2019

Hong Kong’s health care service has been facing an ongoing manpower shortage. No doubt this has been a factor in recurring serious medical blunders, as well as conflicts between medical staff and patients.

Professional medical staff are drained. During the recent winter influenza surge, the system was strained to the point of bursting. It was brought to the public’s attention that medical staff were being treated unfairly because of their outrageous workload.

Obviously, the work attitude of medical staff has been turned upside down. Some of them no longer prioritise the well-being of a patient, and are venting their frustration on any scapegoat they can find. The severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in 2003 is still fresh in our memory. We remember, too, how when facing the deadly virus, Hong Kong’s medical staff valiantly stuck with their life-saving roles, a stark contrast then to the mass resignations of the medical staff in Taiwan.

Sadly, 16 years later, the spirit of that time was nowhere to be found during the recent flu outbreak. Furious and frustrated staff are overwhelmed by the problems of the current system, and it is unrealistic to expect them to have the same positive energy before the problems are rectified.

In an attempt to support our overstretched system, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has pledged an infusion of HK$500 million to help public hospitals cope with the winter flu surge. A total of HK$80.6 billion in recurrent expenditure, an increase of more than 10 per cent from a year ago, was also allocated to the health sector in the latest budget.

But money alone cannot ease the current situation. To solve the problem at its root, the government should focus on tackling the severe manpower shortage, regardless of the strong objections from the medical sector.

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