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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
Facing acute doctor manpower and workload issues in certain clinical units, the Hospital Authority (HA) today (November 9) advertised in its Internet homepage and two local newspapers for the recruitment of non-local doctors under limited registration for the specialties under the most pressure, namely anaesthesia, emergency medicine, family medicine, medicine, paediatrics and psychiatry.
The HA spokesman pointed out that despite the recruitment of 275 new doctors in July this year, there was still a shortfall of 250 doctors required for replacement, service growth and new programmes, according to the latest manpower requests.
"Among the unfilled posts, the above six specialties faced the greatest difficulties in recruitment, and the situation will likely worsen with turnover in the coming months," the spokesman said.
"Alongside the active recruitment drive for fully registered local doctors, the recruitment of non-local doctors has been supported by the respective Central Co-ordinating Committees. Based on the communication with relevant stakeholders including doctors' unions, the HA Task Force on Limited Registration Scheme has agreed to conduct a recruitment exercise for non-local doctors under limited registration only for the specialties in need," the spokesman added.
The HA also submitted to the Medical Council of Hong Kong (MCHK) today the application for renewal of limited registration for four non-local doctors whose one-year registration will expire shortly in early 2013. They were recruited last year (2011) upon the approval for practice under one-year limited registration by the MCHK.
Ten non-local doctors have reported to duty upon approval by the MCHK in the past year for practice in public hospitals under limited registration to relieve the manpower pressure in the specialties of anaesthesia, emergency medicine, family medicine, medicine and psychiatry.
"The HA will submit the renewal application of the remaining non-local doctors according to the expiry date of their limited registration and their personal decisions," the spokesman said.
According to the spokesman, as reflected by the heads of departments which employed the non-local doctors, front-line workload and pressure had been relieved with the additional manpower, whose performance had been satisfactory and comparable with that of local graduates.
The spokesman remarked that the HA will continue to exhaust every effort to attract fully registered local doctors and retain public doctors who have worked longer hours and more frequent call duties amid the current manpower shortfall.
Ends/Friday, November 9, 2012
Issued at HKT 19:21
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