LettersHong Kong’s doctor shortage: unreasonable obstacles betray Medical Council’s attitude
- Readers discuss Hong Kong’s medical manpower crisis, and ways to improve the eHealth app
Since 1997, when the licensing examination was set up, the influx of foreign medical graduates to supplement the supply of doctors has been strongly discouraged, if not curtailed. The profession, the government and the statutory bodies have failed to see the toxicity of such an action.
The usual specious argument against importing foreign doctors is that it lowers the local standard of practice. What is the local standard? Is it so unique and lofty that all the doctors from the rest of the world have to be measured against it?
Each doctor has a finite amount of professional knowledge. It is essential that he does not exceed his limitations. It is not just the expertise but also the attitude that counts. A doctor must be prudent, put his patient’s interest first and refer the patient to a specialist when the doctor’s professional knowledge is found wanting. Abiding by medical ethics is equally important and this cannot be assessed by an examination.
At the final examinations of both local medical schools and the exit examinations of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, there is, to my knowledge, an abundance of examiners from the United Kingdom. This is to ensure that the standards in Hong Kong and the UK are comparable. So at least UK graduates might be exempt from the licensing examination.
Moreover, these graduates of foreign medical schools are often local residents who have spent millions of dollars on getting such an education. By going overseas, they leave sought-after opportunities for others to pursue a medical curriculum locally. Why, then, should they be exiled?