Opinion | Hong Kong must allow in overseas-trained doctors, or suffer the public health consequences

It is high time to make the necessary changes to boost our supply of public doctors to address a critical need in society

If we do not, we risk jeopardising the quality of our health care services, which means citizens are likely to suffer adverse outcomes

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Medical staff at Kwong Wah Hospital in Yau Ma Tei on January 24, 2019. Hong Kong’s public doctors are overworked. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 6:45am, 4 Jun 2021Updated: 6:58am, 4 Jun 2021

We are at a critical juncture in Hong Kong’s public health care system. Crippled by an acute and long-standing shortage of doctors, the unbalanced system is on the verge of collapse.

Over 80 per cent of hospitalisations of Hong Kong citizens – and over 90 per cent for senior citizens – are in public hospitals, driven by their high quality and exceptionally low cost. This means that just 46 per cent of Hong Kong’s doctors serve more than 80 per cent of our population. The imbalance contributes to our public doctors being overworked, overly stressed and feeling burnt out.

In turn, this feeds the vicious circle of doctor shortages, burnout, attrition and worsening undersupply. Adding to that is an ageing society – almost one in three Hongkongers will be 65 and over in 18 years – with a growing burden of chronic illnesses in every age group.

Patients with chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes are getting younger, requiring earlier and longer care. All these factors exacerbate Hong Kong’s serious shortage of doctors.

There is an urgency to supplying our public health system with more doctors. Patient waiting times for surgery at specialist outpatient clinics range from 26 weeks to a protracted 122 weeks for non-urgent new cases.

Waiting times in 2018 for radiology scans at North District Hospital specialist outpatient clinics were almost 2 years for a CAT scan and almost 2½ years for an ultrasound. As a society, are we comfortable with such delayed diagnoses for family members?

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