Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Doctor drive in UK produces healthy number of recruits for Hong Kong

Doctor drive in UK produces healthy number of recruits for Hong Kong

About 20 doctors and soon-to-graduate medical students trained in UK to start work in city in the autumn and ease staffing problems.

About 20 doctors and soon-to-graduate medical students trained in the United Kingdom are expected to start work in Hong Kong in the autumn, a development authorities said would promote the exchange of knowledge and boost professional standards.

Their recruitment was secured after Hospital Authority chief executive Tony Ko Pat-sing led a delegation to London earlier this month to lure UK-based medical students and doctors, including Hongkongers, to work in public hospitals, which are battling a severe manpower crunch.

He said more than 600 people had taken part in the face-to-face and virtual recruitment events and more than 80 per cent of them were permanent residents in the city.

The recruitment team made more than 100 conditional offers to participants at the event and about 20 of them had already accepted them, Ko added.

Dr Tony Ko, the Hospital Authority chief executive, says a recruitment drive in the UK attracted about 20 doctors, who are expected to start work in the city before the end of the year.


“We require those who come to work in Hong Kong to provide a graduation certificate and complete their registration in the city, so it may take some time for them to arrive in Hong Kong,” Ko explained. “They may also need to arrange housing and family matters. We expect them to arrive in the third quarter.”

Ko said the authority wanted to employ more doctors who had qualified elsewhere to bolster the city’s public health services, as well as arrange more knowledge exchanges, “which is obviously very important in further improving our medical standards in Hong Kong”.

He added the authority welcomed overseas doctors to work in any speciality and, because the city had expanded its primary healthcare sector, it would be good to hire more doctors trained in Britain, where family medicine was more well-developed.

Statistics submitted by the Health Bureau to the Legislative Council last month showed the city’s public hospitals were struggling with a staff shortage as they had lost 1,247 doctors between April 2020 and the end of 2022, with only 15 per cent of them retiring.

The government in 2021 introduced a registration scheme that allowed graduates from the world’s top medical schools to work in the city without passing a licensing exam.

There are at present 75 medical qualifications from countries including the UK, the United States and Canada included in the scheme.

But the authority said the programme had only attracted 65 applications by last December, with nine receiving offers.

The authority plans to hold a recruitment event for doctors and medical students in Australia in June.

Ko said most of the recipients of offers in the UK had graduated in the last two years and were interested in working in general medicine or general surgery.

He added that they were “keen and eager” to care for the health of the people of Hong Kong.

“I am very delighted during the recruitment events … Their reactions were very positive and proactive. More than half of them expressed their interests in returning to and serving in Hong Kong,” Ko said.

He added that, apart from Hongkongers, Britons and Malaysian-Chinese who spoke fluent Cantonese had attended the recruitment events.

Ko said, after talking to medical students and doctors in London, he found that Hong Kong had the edge over other places in attracting overseas professionals.

“In some places overseas, it is not as easy to receive training opportunities. Doctors may need to queue for a long time if they want to be trained as a specialist,” he explained.

“Not everyone works in London. They may work in places which Hongkongers consider inconvenient … In Hong Kong, you can have fun in places such as Lan Kwai Fong after work, but that may not be the case overseas.”

Ko said relocation expenses, information about schools for children and accommodation would be provided to doctors who opted to move to Hong Kong.

But he said it would be difficult to give tax reductions as the authority had to ensure fair employment benefits for resident and overseas doctors.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
'I am not your servant': IndiGo crew member, passenger get into row over airline meal
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
BMW driver…
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
×