Under the scheme, non-locally trained doctors can gain full registration in Hong Kong without the need to pass the local licensing exam provided they are permanent residents, have graduated from one of a list of recognised medical schools and are already registered to practise medicine elsewhere.

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They must also work in the city’s public health care institutions for at least five years after obtaining their specialist qualifications, and deliver their work “satisfactorily and competently” in that time.

The proposal aims to resolve the severe manpower problem which, according to government figures, left public hospitals short of 660 specialists and specialist trainees last year, and the Department of Health in need of 49 such doctors.

Lawmakers, including one who supports opening the city to overseas-trained doctors, have also hit out at the proposal.

Catering sector lawmaker and Executive Council member Tommy Cheung Yu-yan, who has for years been pushing the city to be more open in hiring doctors trained elsewhere, said the scheme should include those who were not permanent residents.

Questions were also raised over whether the government had done enough work on gathering views from different stakeholders, but Sophia Chan said communication had been continuing since early this year.

“Some people have different opinions, but that does not mean there is no communication [with the government],” she said.

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The health secretary also dismissed the idea there were political considerations behind the timing.

“This is totally not a political motive. We hope to solve [the shortages] issue, which is also a burning problem for Hong Kong, as soon as possible,” she said, adding the coronavirus situation was largely under control locally.

She said the government would also continue to lobby hard for Legco’s support, even though pro-establishment legislators dominated the chamber anyway.

Some doctors and patients’ groups, however, remained unconvinced the plan would solve deep-seated problems in the public sector, where employees’ workloads were heavy and residents often needed to wait years for a first appointment at some specialist clinics.

Dr Gabriel Choi Kin, president of the Medical Association, previously argued those recruited under the special registration scheme would head to the private sector after fulfilling the five-year requirement in the public health service.

Chan said the government had been working on initiatives such as public-private partnerships and pushing primary care services in a bid to ease the workload on hospitals.

But the partnership scheme had not resulted in many patients transferring from the public to private sector, she said. The Hospital Authority had been concerned it would lead to an overly prosperous private market that would draw more doctors from public hospitals and worsen the manpower issue, Chan said.

“I think more could be done on the public-private partnership scheme,” she admitted, explaining that many private doctors had said they were seeing fewer patients during the Covid-19 epidemic.

“As doctors’ attrition rate in the public sector has become more stable now, I think [stepping up the partnership] could be done to alleviate waiting times,” she said.

She also believed the working environment in the public sector would improve when more people worked there.

Asked why the 10-strong special registration committee which would determine the list of recognised medical schools had no elected members, Chan said the group would be using purely professional judgment.

She added that having elected members on the committee would not bring any extra gains and the process of selecting schools would be transparent and open.

“I hope the public will feel government-appointed people act with careful consideration,” she said.