Senior managers at Hong Kong public hospitals to face salary freeze over medical blunders
Firing staff not an option for punitive action given public health sector’s manpower crunch, Hospital Authority chairman says
Hong Kong authorities will freeze the pay of senior managers at public hospitals where medical blunders occur as part of reforms to hold staff more accountable, with an official saying firing employees is not an option given a manpower crunch.
Henry Fan Hung-ling, chairman of the Hospital Authority, also said on Saturday that the organisation would seek to retain medical personnel and introduce non-locally trained doctors to resolve the shortage, which could have contributed to a recent spate of blunders.
He noted that the number of non-locally trained doctors employed by the authority stood at more than 330, accounting for 5 per cent of the 7,000 working in public hospitals.
Fan spelled out proposals to punish staff behind medical blunders after a special committee appointed by the authority put forward 31 recommendations on Friday following a three-month review.
The committee was established in July in response to a string of medical blunders and equipment failures at public hospitals.
“We are considering implementing a reward and punishment mechanism … When there is a medical incident, the conclusion is either the frontline staff made a mistake or management failed to take full responsibility. We hope to rectify this situation,” he told a radio programme.