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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
In response to media enquiries about the applications to the Medical Council of Hong Kong (MCHK) for renewal of the limited registration of four non-local doctors today (December 5), the Hospital Authority (HA) spokesman gave the following reply:
The HA welcomed the decision of MCHK to approve the renewal applications for practice with limited registration of four non-local doctors (two in Anaesthesia, one in Medicine and one in Emergency Medicine) who will continue to service and help relieve the frontline pressure in public hospitals for another one year.
Over the past year, a total of 11 non-local doctors have reported duty upon approval by the MCHK for practice in public hospitals under limited registration in the specialties of Anaesthesia, Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Medicine and Psychiatry.
Having ascertained the personal preference of the remaining non-local doctors, HA will submit the renewal application for them according to the expiry date of their limited registration. As reflected by the heads of departments which have employed the non-local doctors, frontline workload and pressure had been relieved with the additional manpower whose performance is satisfactory and comparable with local graduates.
Facing acute doctor manpower and workload issues, 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. HA has advertised earlier in the homepage and newspapers for the recruitment of non-local doctors under limited registration for the most pressurised specialties, namely Anaesthesia, Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Medicine, Paediatrics and Psychiatry.
Ends/Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Issued at HKT 20:11
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