To address the shortage of healthcare professionals in Hong Kong, the Hospital Authorities said earlier to launch an exchange program for doctors in the Greater Bay Area to bring in experienced doctors from tertiary hospitals in the Greater Bay Area to serve in Hong Kong.

The first batch of the program was expected to see five to ten doctors serving in Hong Kong for less than one year.

Patient rights advocate Tim Pang Hung-cheong from the Society for Community Organization welcomed the arrangement. However, he said that only five to ten doctors would be "a drop in the bucket", calling on the authorities to use it as a basis to expand the program.

Pang said the city has been in a shortage of medical staff and the society would welcome the program to bring in competent doctors who meet the local requirements of the medical profession.

He added that the HA has nearly 7,000 doctors, and some 500 have left, accounting for about 8 percent.

He believed that if the program turned out to be effective, it could break the preconceptions between health workers in Hong Kong and the mainland, including language skills and medical standards.