As there is a serious loss of manpower in hospitals, health secretary Lo Chung-mau said Saturday that authorities will consult the health-care sector to require professionals to serve for a certain period before they can leave public hospitals.

Lau said yesterday that about 70 percent of medical graduates are getting specialist training and experience in public hospitals for about six more years after internships in recent years.

He also pointed out that the Hospital Authority is improving working conditions.

"Including increasing promotion opportunities, supporting house purchasing [by launching a low-interest loan scheme], reducing workloads and improving workflow, a lot has been done," said Lau.

While the authority has been successful worked over the decades in bringing low-cost services and amid a focus on hospital development, he said there is still a need to develop community services.

"We should know the reason for the remaining 30 percent of graduates not receiving specialist training and suggest that they could serve the public through primary health care," Lau noted.

The two medical schools in Hong Kong, he said, have not seen a decline in entrance grades.

But with students able to enter recognized foreign medical schools and return to practice here, Lau said it is believed that competition between schools will intensify.

The waiting period for new cases in the authority's outpatient specialist clinics stayed at over 100 weeks last year, with the longest being close to four years for eye specialist consultations in Kowloon West.

Authority chief manager Lau Ka-hin said the long waiting period was caused by the fifth pandemic wave the goal of reducing the waiting time for internal medicine by 20 percent in the next year.