Plan to cut training for Hong Kong family doctors by two years to boost role of primary care

Hong Kong’s specialist medical training school plans to slash two years off the course for family doctors to attract more students.

These new recruits would strengthen the role of preventative primary care in the city, easing the burden on overstretched public hospitals that are a drain on taxpayers.

Dr Donald Li Kwok-tung, president of the Academy of Medicine, said many young doctors shunned family medicine for more lucrative branches of the profession and the government had failed to enhance the sector’s place in the system.

Li revealed the school was considering shortening the specialist training for family medicine doctors by two years to four years – on a par with international standards – as the current six-year curriculum was the longest in the world.

Trainees have already spent six years as undergraduates at medical school.

There is an international trend for countries where the population is ageing rapidly, for example Singapore, to shift the medical burden from hospitals to the community by enhancing the role of family doctors. Hong Kong is also experiencing such a demographic shift.

In the United States and United Kingdom it takes three years to train to be a family doctor, and just two in Canada.