Public hospitals’ staff shortage can be solved with ‘Hong Kong model’ rather than imported ideas, executive councillor Lam Ching-choi says

Hong Kong need not rely on imported solutions to its hospital staffing crisis, and could develop its own recruitment system, such as by making special arrangements for graduates of certain universities to work on public wards, a top policy adviser has said.

Dr Lam Ching-choi, a member of the chief executive’s cabinet, the Executive Council, said the city could gradually develop a “Hong Kong model” which could attract doctors from schools with recognised training standards, such as those already working with local universities.

Lam, a paediatrician and chief executive of the Haven of Hope Christian Service, said he believed overseas recruitment could first target the Hong Kong diaspora. He said the children of Hongkongers abroad could be more likely to want to return, and stay longer in the field.

He added that incoming doctors should be restricted to working in the most pressing area — the understaffed public sector — instead of the more profitable private clinics.