Editorial | Healthier outlook for staffing at Hong Kong hospitals
- Recruitment of doctors and other medical professionals from mainland China and overseas will help relieve pressure on the city’s public facilities
There are encouraging signs that the healthcare sector is on the road to recovery from its alarming labour shortage. The first 10 non-local doctors recruited overseas will start working in Hong Kong’s public hospitals this month, according to the Hospital Authority. Dr Gladys Kwan Wai-man, a chief manager at the authority, also said on Monday that a separate scheme welcoming mainland medical professionals to local hospitals for up to a year would become a regular programme.
Jobs have been offered to more than 100 doctors working overseas, following recruitment exercises organised earlier this year in Britain and Australia. Offers were accepted by as many as 70, including those soon to report for duty. Recruitment of mainland professionals under the Greater Bay Area Healthcare Talents Visiting Programmes has added a further 83. Doctors, nurses and Chinese medicine practitioners are eligible.
Talent exchanges also offer what Kwan described as a “win-win situation”, where mainland professionals learn how the Hong Kong system works because they provide the expertise that supports it.
Dr Kuang Yukun, an expert in respiratory medicine from the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, said he needed to learn follow-up rehabilitation procedures and how doctors in the city liaised with nurses or units about services. Kuang said he hoped to establish the healthcare practice of clearly defined work roles between doctors, nurses and administrative support staff at his home institution when he returned to the mainland.
It is good to see progress being made in addressing needs arising from a record fall in the city’s workforce across many sectors, including healthcare. Doctors and nurses have left the profession in recent years following economic and social setbacks experienced during the pandemic and civil unrest. The growing needs of an ageing population have only added to stress on the system. Officials deserve credit for finding outside talent, especially when other cities around the world are taking similar steps to open up their medical sectors. The challenge right now is to ensure protocols are in place to maintain the high standards the community expects and deserves.