Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, at a media session at Queen Elizabeth Hospital today (January 26):

Reporter: Professor Chan, did you make any concrete promises in the meeting to solve or at least to ease the manpower workload problem immediately?

Secretary for Food and Health: I would say the meeting was very constructive and all the doctors who have attended the meeting have frankly expressed their comments to us. Of course, manpower is the major issue. I have already asked the Hospital Authority to prepare short-, medium- and long-term manpower plans. In fact, last year in the first and second quarter, we have already started the discussion of the medium to long-term manpower plan. So that we are not only to provide or to plan the manpower for the new services in the Hospital Authority, but also to replenish the existing gaps of doctors and nurses in terms of their current services in the Hospital Authority. Just now, there were a lot of constructive comments given to us as to how we can rectify the current situation. Some of them are very practical and doable. The Hospital Authority is going to quickly look into those comments and suggestions and then to work on those so that the existing situation can be improved. Of course, throughout the process of rectifying the current situation, if there are needs of resources or extra resources, the Bureau would definitely try our best to provide the resources needed so that we can solve the current manpower problems in particular. But I think the medium- and long-term manpower planning is very important because we do not want this to happen year after year. Therefore, I think we would be working on short-, medium- and long-term measures in dealing with the entire situation.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Saturday, January 26, 2019
Issued at HKT 18:46

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