Is internship scheme for foreign-trained doctors killing careers and adding to Hong Kong’s medical staffing crunch?
- Trio of doctors hit out at restrictions and call for authorities to relax rules
- Current mechanism requires overseas-trained professionals to take up stint that limits them to basic chores before they can practise fully
Three doctors trained overseas and working in Hong Kong’s public hospitals have urged authorities to scrap a controversial internship that requires them to do basic chores such as drawing patients’ blood, before they can practise fully.
Dr Martin Leung Mou-kow, 40, a Hongkonger, is among medical professionals who want to come back to their families in the city after receiving qualifications abroad. Leung became an emergency medicine specialist in Australia in 2013.
He is now working under a limited registration scheme in Queen Mary Hospital’s accident and emergency wards – one of the departments with the heaviest workload in the sector.
Under the plan, Leung can only work in the public sector with a contract to be renewed every three years. To practise fully, he has to pass a local licensing examination and take a local internship, which is normally a year long.
Overseas-trained specialists can however apply for a partial exemption and reduce this term to six months.