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Following is a question by the Dr Hon Kwok Ka-ki and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (May 28):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective current numbers of doctors and dentists employed by the Department of Health (DH) on non-civil service contract (NCSC) terms, their longest and average length of service, and their respective percentages in the staff of DH at their relevant ranks;
(b) in the past three years, of the respective numbers of doctors and dentists who were employed by the Government on civil service terms of appointment, the respective numbers of serving doctors and dentists on NCSC terms who applied for such posts and, among them, the number of those who had successfully secured appointment;
(c) of the measures in place to encourage or assist serving doctors and dentists on NCSC terms in applying for the relevant civil service posts; and
(d) of the respective expected numbers of doctors and dentists to be employed by the Government in each of the coming three years, and whether all such doctors and dentists will be employed on civil service terms of appointment?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) At present, a total of 41 full-time doctors and 50 full-time dentists are employed by the Department of Health (DH) on non-civil service contract (NCSC) terms, and the details are shown in Annex.
(b) On April 1, 2003, the Administration imposed a general civil service open recruitment freeze. The recruitment freeze was lifted on April 1, 2007 (except for those grades included in the Second Voluntary Retirement Scheme (Second VR Scheme)). In the same year, DH successfully appointed 56 doctors on civil service probationary terms through open recruitment. Among the 69 NCSC doctors who had applied for the post in this exercise, 10 failed to meet the language proficiency requirements for appointment while 38 were offered appointment. Save for two applicants who declined the offers, the remaining 36 applicants accepted appointment as doctors on civil service terms.
DH is conducting a new round of open recruitment exercise to employ 65 doctors on civil service probationary terms. Selection interviews are being arranged. In this new exercise, 31 doctors on NCSC terms have applied for the posts. Of the ten NCSC doctors who have not filed an application, five are retired civil servants.
As for dentists, their grade had been included in the Second VR Scheme and thus subject to the five-year open recruitment freeze. The freeze period expired on March 21, 2008. DH is conducting an open recruitment exercise to recruit 43 dentists on civil service probationary terms. Selection interviews are now underway. In this exercise, a total of 49 NCSC dentists have applied for the posts. In addition, DH also plans to convert 16 NCSC dentist positions to civil service posts in 2009-10.
(c) The existing Government policy is to fill civil service vacancies through open recruitment to ensure fair competition. Generally speaking, NCSC staff who have met the basic entry requirements of a post and possess working experience relevant to the job will have a competitive edge over other applicants in the selection process. To help NCSC staff fulfill the language proficiency requirements for civil service appointment, DH organised language proficiency training courses in mid-2006 with a view to familiarising them with the use of language papers in the Common Recruitment Examination.
(d) Under existing Government policy, the 65 doctors and 43 dentists being recruited by DH in 2008-09 will be on civil service probationary terms. As for the next two years, the number of doctors and dentists to be recruited on civil service terms will depend on the number of new posts secured in future resource allocation exercises and on staff wastage. In addition, DH will continue to employ doctors and dentists on NCSC terms to cope with demand for short-term or time-limited services or those services under review.
Ends/Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Issued at HKT 12:05
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