Non-locally trained doctors are welcome to join Hong Kong’s health care system

I am writing to respond to Dr Stephen Wong’s letter, “Expand licensing exam quota for overseas-trained doctors to ease Hong Kong shortage” (November 10). The government attaches great importance to addressing the shortage of doctors in Hong Kong.

Apart from continuously increasing the number of locally-trained doctors, the government has also been actively seeking to attract qualified non-locally trained doctors to practise in Hong Kong through various means, including inviting the Medical Council of Hong Kong to consider improving the arrangements for the licensing examination and amending the Medical Registration Ordinance to lengthen the validity of limited registration for non-locally trained doctors from one year to three years with a view to enhancing its attractiveness.

In October, the Medical Registration Ordinance was amended to provide a new pathway (that is, special registration) for qualified non-locally trained doctors to obtain full registration in Hong Kong as an alternative to the current pathway of passing the licensing exam, subject to certain criteria being met. Non-locally trained doctors who possess the recognised medical qualifications, subject to their fulfilment of certain other criteria, may apply for special registration to practise in public health care institutions. After serving for a certain period, obtaining recognised specialist qualifications and passing on-the-job assessment, they would be granted full registration to practise in Hong Kong. The government expects that the Special Registration Committee will determine the first batch of recognised medical qualifications within the first half of 2022.

As a statutory professional regulatory body, the Medical Council acts in accordance with its functions under the Medical Registration Ordinance. One of the council’s key functions is to administer and run the licensing exam for non-locally trained doctors.

Over the past few years, the council has implemented a number of improvements and new initiatives to assist qualified non-locally trained doctors in obtaining full registration in Hong Kong while upholding professional standards, including increasing the frequency of the licensing exam from once to twice a year, revising certain exemption requirements for the exam, introducing a Virtual Education Resource Centre to enhance the transparency of the exam, improving the design of exam questions and abolishing the negative marking mechanism.

Given that some candidates who applied to sit the clinical examination of the 2021 licensing exam (second sitting) were not allocated seats, the government will invite the Medical Council to explore the possibility of increasing the maximum capacity of the clinical examination so as to accommodate the needs of non-locally trained doctors who wish to obtain full registration in Hong Kong through passing the licensing exam. As ever, non-locally trained doctors are most welcome to join the health care system in Hong Kong.

Professor Sophia Chan, secretary for food and health, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government