LCQ15: Manpower and employment situation in healthcare sector of Hong Kong
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Question:
Regarding the manpower and employment situation in the healthcare sector of Hong Kong, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the current number of professionals in each of the 13 healthcare professions subject to statutory registration and the ratio of such professionals to the population, as set out in the table below;
| Healthcare profession | Total | Ratio of healthcare professionals to the population |
| Doctors | ||
| Dentists | ||
| Dental hygienists | ||
| Nurses | ||
| Midwives | ||
| Chinese medicine practitioners | ||
| Pharmacists | ||
| Occupational therapists | ||
| Physiotherapists | ||
| Medical laboratory technologists | ||
| Optometrists | ||
| Radiographers | ||
| Chiropractors | ||
| Total |
(2) of the number of training places for various healthcare professions in the following three academic years, with a breakdown by (a) places funded the University Grants Committee and (b) self-financing places, as set out in the table below;
| Healthcare profession | 2024-2025 | 2025-2026 | 2026-2027 | |||
| (a) | (b) | (a) | (b) | (a) | (b) | |
| Doctors | ||||||
| Dentists | ||||||
| Chinese medicine practitioners | ||||||
| Registered nurses | ||||||
| Enrolled nurses | ||||||
| Occupational therapists | ||||||
| Physiotherapists | ||||||
| Medical laboratory technologists | ||||||
| Optometrists | ||||||
| Radiographers | ||||||
(3) of the respective numbers of non-locally trained healthcare professionals (including doctors, dentists, Chinese medicine practitioners and allied health professionals) who have been admitted to practise in Hong Kong to date;
(4) of the respective numbers of vacancies and intakes of full-time doctors, nurses and allied health professionals in the Hospital Authority in each of the past three financial years, as set out in the table below;
| Grade | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 | 2025-2026 | |||
| Number of vacancies | Number of intakes | Number of vacancies | Number of intakes | Number of vacancies | Number of intakes | |
| Doctors | ||||||
| Nurses | ||||||
| Occupational therapists | ||||||
| Physiotherapists | ||||||
| Medical laboratory technologists | ||||||
| Optometrists | ||||||
| Radiographers | ||||||
(5) whether it knows the employment situation of the various types of healthcare professionals in Hong Kong in the past three years (set out in the table below);
| Healthcare profession | 2023/2024/2025 | ||||
| Number of employed persons | Number of unemployed persons | Unemployment rate | Number of underemployed persons | Underemployment rate | |
| Doctors | |||||
| Nurses | |||||
| Occupational therapists |
|||||
| Physiotherapists | |||||
| Medical laboratory technologists | |||||
| Optometrists | |||||
| Radiographers | |||||
(6) whether the Government will consider publishing the employment statistics of various types of healthcare professionals on an annual basis, so as to assist persons aspiring to join the healthcare sector in their career planning; and
(7) of the measures put in place by the Government to ensure a balance between the supply of and demand for healthcare services and manpower, with a view to better promoting the sound and long-term development of the healthcare system in Hong Kong?
Reply:
President,
In consultation with the Labour and Welfare Bureau, the Education Bureau, the Department of Health (DH), the Hospital Authority (HA) and the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD), the reply to the question raised by Professor the Hon Chan Wing-kwong is as follows:
(1) As at June 30, 2026, the numbers of healthcare professionals of the 13 healthcare professions subject to statutory registration and their ratios per 1 000 population (*) are tabulated below:
| Total number (Note 1) | Ratio of healthcare professionals per 1 000 population | |
| Doctors (Note 2) | 17 415 | 2.31 |
| Dentists (Note 2) | 2 953 | 0.39 |
| Dental hygienists (Note 3) | 684 | 0.09 |
| Nurses (Note 4) | 76 177 | 10.10 |
| Midwives (Note 5) | 4 476 | 0.60 |
| Chinese medicine practitioners (Note 6) | 10 841 | 1.44 |
| Pharmacists | 3 474 | 0.46 |
| Occupational therapists | 3 667 | 0.49 |
| Physiotherapists | 5 549 | 0.74 |
| Medical laboratory technologists | 4 818 | 0.64 |
| Optometrists | 2 183 | 0.29 |
| Radiographers (Note 2) | 3 008 | 0.40 |
| Chiropractors | 362 | 0.05 |
| Total | 135 607 | 18.0 |
* The C&SD's provisional mid-2026 population estimate is 7 518 300.
Note 1:According to the figures provided by the Secretariats of the Boards and Councils of respective healthcare professions.
Note 2 : Figures include professionals under full registration, limited registration and special registration.
Note 3: The statutory registration regime for dental hygienists came into effect on August 24, 2026.
Note 4: Figures include full registration/enrolment, limited registration/enrolment and special registration/enrolment.
Note 5: As a person must first obtain the qualification of a registered nurse before becoming a registered midwife, the numbers of midwives and nurses overlap.
Note 6: Figures include registered Chinese medicine practitioners, listed Chinese medicine practitioners and Chinese medicine practitioners under limited registration.
(2) The numbers of training places for the various healthcare professions from the 2024/25 to 2026/27 academic years (AYs) (see Annex), broken down by places funded by the University Grants Committee (UGC), places subsidised under the Study Subsidy Scheme for Designated Professions/Sectors (SSSDP) and self-financing training places. The duration of programmes for the same profession varies. Taking nursing as an example, it ranges from two to five years. Hence, students admitted to different programmes in the same year will graduate and become eligible to apply for professional registration in different years. Moreover, the number of training places should not be regarded as the eventual manpower supply or the number of persons engaging in the work of the relevant profession. In fact, not all students of healthcare programmes choose to obtain professional registration after graduation, or apply for registration in the year of graduation. Even after obtaining registration, the persons concerned may also pursue careers in other sectors.
(3) As at June 30, 2026, the numbers of non-locally trained doctors, dentists, nurses, Chinese medicine practitioners and allied health professionals admitted to Hong Kong through limited registration or special registration are tabulated below:
| Limited registration/ Limited enrolment (nurses only) / Limited registration (Chinese medicine practitioners only) |
Special registration/ Special enrolment (nurses only) |
|
| Doctors | 332 | 162 |
| Dentists | 24 | 0 |
| Dental hygienists | N/A | N/A |
| Nurses | 606 | 31 |
| Midwives | N/A | N/A |
| Chinese medicine practitioners | 29 | N/A |
| Pharmacists | N/A | N/A |
| Occupational therapists | 0 | N/A |
| Physiotherapists | 0 | N/A |
| Medical laboratory technologists | 0 | N/A |
| Optometrists | 0 | N/A |
| Radiographers | 4 | N/A |
| Chiropractors | N/A | N/A |
* According to the figures provided by the Secretariats of the Boards and Councils of respective healthcare professions.
(4) The intake of full-time doctors, nurses and allied health professionals in the HA from 2023/24 to 2025/26 financial years (FY) is tabulated below:
| Staff group/Major grade | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
2025/26 |
|
| Doctors (Note 1, 2) | 592 | 633 |
610 |
|
| Nurses | 2 495 | 2 573 |
3090 | |
| Allied health professionals | Occupational therapists | 137 |
117 |
80 |
| Physiotherapists | 213 |
236 |
148 |
|
| Medical laboratory technologists | 162 |
158 | 129 |
|
| Optometrists | 5 |
6 |
4 |
|
| Radiographers (diagnostic radiographers and radiation therapists) | 74 |
91 |
142 | |
* The above manpower figures are calculated on a full-time equivalent basis, including permanent, contract and temporary staff of the HA.
** Intake refers to the total number of permanent and contract staff (calculated on headcount basis) joining the HA during the period. Staff who were internally transferred, promoted or redeployed within the HA are not counted.
*** With effect from January 2024, the intake figures exclude staff under Extending Employment Beyond Retirement. The relevant figures before that month are for reference only and cannot be directly compared with those data under the current revised compilation method.
Note 1: The manpower figures of doctors exclude interns and dental officers.
Note 2: Excluding 17, 95 and 92 visiting doctors who came to Hong Kong for exchange in 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 respectively.
The numbers of vacancies of full-time doctors, nurses and allied health professionals of the HA in 2025/26 FY are tabulated below:
| Staff group/Major grade | Number of vacancies | |
| Doctors (Note 1,6) | 513 | |
| Nurses (Note 2,6) | 3 235 | |
| Allied health professionals (Note 3, 4,5, 6) |
Medical laboratory technologists | 69 |
| Radiographers (diagnostic radiographers and radiation therapists) |
225 | |
| Occupational therapists | 21 | |
| Physiotherapists | 60 | |
| Pharmacists (Note 4) | 44 | |
| Dispensers | 61 | |
| Optometrists | 2 | |
| Others (Note 5) | 66 | |
Note 1: The above number of vacancies of doctors is calculated based on the number of establishment posts of full-time permanent and contract doctors, excluding posts outside the establishment such as those retired and rehired under Extending Employment Beyond Retirement and visiting doctors. The above number of vacancies of doctors also excludes interns and dental officers.
Note 2: The above number of vacancies of nurses is calculated based on the number of establishment posts of full-time permanent and contract nurses, excluding posts and vacancies outside the establishment such as those retired and rehired under Extending Employment Beyond Retirement.
Note 3: The above numbers of establishment posts and vacancies of allied health professionals are calculated based on the number of posts of full-time permanent and contract allied health professionals, excluding the posts and vacancies outside the establishment such as those retired and rehired under Extending Employment Beyond Retirement.
Note 4: The posts and vacancies of pharmacists include resident pharmacists.
Note 5: For allied health professionals, the "Others" category includes audiology technicians, bioinformaticians, clinical psychologists, dental technicians, dietitians, genetic counsellors, mould laboratory technicians, orthoptists, physicists, podiatrists, prosthetists-orthotists, Scientific Officers (Medical) - Pathology, Scientific Officers (Medical) - Audiology, Scientific Officers (Medical) - Radiology, Scientific Officers (Medical) - Radiotherapy, medical social workers, and speech therapists.
Note 6: The HA does not maintain the numbers of establishment posts and vacancies of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals before 2025-26.
(5) According to the classification of the C&SD, activities related to the practice of medicine, dentistry, Chinese medicine and allied health fall under the statistical scope of the human health activities industry (Note 1) under the Hong Kong Standard Industrial Classification Version 2.0. The relevant statistical category also covers human health activities carried out by other allied health personnel legally recognised to treat patients (Note 2) other than registered healthcare professionals, as well as other related services (Note 3). The overall figures on employment, unemployment and underemployment of the human health activities industry from 2023 to 2025 are set out below:
| 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
| Number of employed persons | 158 300 | 165 900 | 170 800 |
| Number of unemployed persons | 2 700 | 2 300 | 2 700 |
| Unemployment rate (per cent) | 1.7 | 1.4 | 1.5 |
| Number of underemployed persons | 300 | - (Note 4) | 700 |
| Underemployment rate (per cent) | 0.2 | - (Note 4) | 0.4 |
Note 1: The division of human health activities covers hospitals and other human health institutions with accommodation facilities that provide diagnosis and medical treatment to in-patients, as well as consultation and treatment activities of general practitioners, medical specialists and surgeons. Dental practice activities such as general dental practice, specialist dental practice and orthodontics are also classified under this division.
Note 2: For example, audiologists, clinical or educational psychologists, dietitians, orthoptists, podiatrists, prosthetists-orthotists, speech therapists, etc.
Note 3: For example, intermediaries for human health services, ambulance services, blood, sperm or transplant organ bank activities, and clinic management services, etc.
Note 4: Figures are not released due to relatively large sampling errors.
There is no breakdown of the relevant statistics by individual healthcare profession.
The unemployment rates of the human health activities industry were far lower than the overall unemployment rates of Hong Kong of 2.9 per cent, 3.0 per cent and 3.7 per cent respectively in the corresponding years, as well as the overall underemployment rates of 1.1 per cent, 1.2 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.
The total numbers of registered healthcare professionals in 2023, 2024 and 2025 were 125 144, 129 564 and 134 643 respectively, each representing about 80 per cent of the estimated number of employed persons in the corresponding year.
(6) and (7) Healthcare manpower planning is a long-cycle policy task. In step with the planning cycle of the UGC, the Government has all along conducted a systematic manpower projection for the 13 healthcare professions subject to statutory registration every three years. Based on the overall healthcare demand driven by the population, the projection estimates the short-, medium- and long-term manpower supply and demand according to service demand, so that talent training measures can be adjusted to maintain the high standard of healthcare professionals and the high efficiency of the healthcare system in Hong Kong. The figures on short-, medium- and long-term manpower supply and demand derived from the regular projections also provide an evidence-based foundation and reference for planning the training places of the relevant professions, formulating professional development policies, optimising talent nurturing measures, etc.
Based on the results of the healthcare manpower projection, the Government adjusts its training and short-term talent strategies through targeted measures. On training places, the Government has continuously increased the number of UGC-funded first-year first-degree healthcare training places, from about 1 930 in the 2019/20 AY to about 2 270 per year in the 2026/27 AY. Among them, the number of medical places has increased from 530 per year in the 2019/20 AY to 650 per year starting from the 2025/26 AY. The Government is also giving full support to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in establishing the third medical school, with the target of admitting the first cohort of 50 medical students in 2028. The number of subsidised places for healthcare-related programmes under the SSSDP has increased from 1 320 in the 2019/20 AY to about 2 270 in the 2026/27 AY. As for the healthcare professions with a gradually narrowing manpower supply-demand gap, the Government has commenced a review and is adjusting the number of places of the relevant programmes in an orderly manner. In September 2026, the Government announced that, starting from the 2027/28 AY, the numbers of subsidised places of physiotherapy and occupational therapy related programmes under the SSSDP would be reduced by 55 and 20 per year respectively, so as to meet the needs for the sustainable development of the relevant healthcare professions while taking into account the latest service needs.
Apart from adjusting the number of local training places, the Government has also, through legislative amendments and under the principle of upholding the priority of local training, created new pathways to attract qualified non-locally trained healthcare professionals to practise in public healthcare institutions, so as to alleviate the healthcare manpower shortage in the public system and expand the local talent pool. Such arrangements are supplementary in nature and limited in scale. As at June 30, 2026, non-locally trained professionals accounted for about 2.8 per cent of the total number of registered doctors and about 0.8 per cent of that of nurses. Public healthcare institutions have all along given priority to recruiting locally trained professionals and will continue to uphold this principle.
The Government is conducting a new round of healthcare manpower projection. Various tasks have commenced since November 2025, including consultation with the healthcare professions subject to statutory registration. The projection will incorporate variables such as demographic changes and structural shifts in the population, prevalence of chronic diseases, cross-boundary healthcare utilisation and the status of technology application, and will also take into account holistically the known and planned healthcare policy developments as well as the service expansions being progressively implemented, so as to project the future manpower demand. Manpower supply will be comprehensively assessed based on the graduates to be nurtured from the training places of existing and planned local healthcare programmes and the registration trends of qualified non-locally trained professionals. The Government and the HA are systematically collating information on the overall service volume statistics, manpower distribution and local training scale of the various healthcare professions, and the projection exercise is expected to be completed in 2027. Based on the projection results, the Government will review the prevailing manpower strategies for local healthcare professions, review the relevant training places in conjunction with the UGC and the Education Bureau, and adjust other training strategies. The projection results will also be reported to the Panel on Health Services of the Legislative Council, and the relevant data will be published.
Apart from the healthcare manpower projection and the C&SD's data on the human health activities industry, manpower information on healthcare professionals is currently published through different channels. For instance, the Boards and Councils of respective healthcare professions publish the year-end numbers of registrants of the 13 healthcare professions subject to statutory registration through the C&SD every year. As at June 30, 2026, fully registered healthcare professionals working in the HA and the DH accounted for about one-third of the overall number of fully registered professionals. The proportions were about 40 per cent for doctors, nurses and radiographers, about 30 per cent for pharmacists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists, and about 10 per cent or lower for dentists, Chinese medicine practitioners and optometrists. The HA also publishes the manpower, attrition rates and vacancy figures of its various grades every year. Such data may serve as a reference for members of the public. However, as some healthcare professions have all along been predominantly private-sector based, the HA's statistics do not reflect the overall market situation.
The Government has all along been actively encouraging young people to join the healthcare professions to provide healthcare services for the public. Healthcare professionals need to uphold a high sense of responsibility in caring for patients, and may have to face birth, ageing, illness and death, emergencies and difficult medical decisions. Some frontline positions may require long working hours or shift work. As it takes many years to complete professional training and obtain registration, the actual recruitment situation upon graduation will be affected by various factors, including the overall economy and the private healthcare market environment, the inclination of fresh graduates towards healthcare work or other fields, and changes in the working environment of various healthcare professions, and may differ from the situation at the time of admission. Those aspiring to join the healthcare professions should give full consideration to their own interests, abilities and passion for serving patients, rather than placing undue emphasis on employment data.
Ends/Wednesday, November 11, 2026
Issued at HKT 18:50
Issued at HKT 18:50
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