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Hong Kong doctors support exempting foreign-trained professionals from internship requirement in bid to solve crippling doctor shortage
- Medical Council scheduled to vote on new proposal on May 8
- Public outrage followed council’s rejection of four earlier proposals
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Hong Kong’s largest doctors’ group on Friday threw its weight behind a new proposal to exempt foreign-trained doctors from an internship requirement, paving the way for the proposal to pass in an upcoming vote to help ease the city’s crippling doctor shortage.
The Hong Kong Medical Association, the body representing the city’s registered doctors, reached a consensus on the matter after two meetings last week and one on Thursday, said Dr Pierre Chan, a lawmaker for the medical sector.
The Medical Council, the independent body that licenses doctors, is scheduled to vote on the proposal on May 8.
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It would be the fifth proposal put forward to alleviate the lack of doctors in Hong Kong’s public hospitals.
Four earlier proposals to exempt the internship were voted down by the council despite the medical sector’s general agreement that such hurdles for foreign-trained doctors should be removed.
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“I think the concept of this proposal is to keep [overseas-trained] doctors at the Hospital Authority as much as possible because it has the highest demand and pressure,” said Chan on local radio.
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