Hong Kong public hospitals expect to bring in 250 non-locally trained doctors by end of 2024, health official says

Hospital Authority chairman Henry Fan says public health sector has made good progress in recruiting and retaining talent amid long-standing personnel shortage

‘About 200 of [incoming doctors] will be employed for the long term and the remainder will be here for short-term training or exchange,’ Fan says

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Hong Kong’s public health sector is grappling with a personnel shortage. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 9:34pm, 21 Mar 2024Updated: 11:39pm, 21 Mar 2024

Hong Kong’s public hospitals are expecting to recruit more than 250 non-locally trained doctors by the end of this year, with a senior official expressing optimism over a drop in the number of healthcare professionals leaving the sector.

Hospital Authority chairman Henry Fan Hung-ling said on Thursday that the sector had made good progress in recruiting and retaining medical talent amid a long-standing personnel shortage.

“We expect by the end of this year that we will have more than 250 non-locally trained doctors coming to Hong Kong for work,” he said.

“About 200 of them will be employed for the long term and the remainder will be here for short-term training or exchange.”

The number of vacancies for doctors is decreasing

Henry Fan Hung-ling

Official figures show the attrition rate for public hospital doctors stood at 5.4 per cent over a 12-month period ending in late January, lower than the 6.6 per cent logged a year before.