The Government will further increase the number of subsidised medical training places by 60 each year in the coming three academic years to alleviate the manpower shortage of doctors.

Acting Secretary for Food & Health Dr Chui Tak-yi told legislators today the overall attrition rate of full-time doctors in public hospitals was 5.8% in 2017-18.

Dr Chui said the Government has substantially increased the medical training places funded by the University Grants Committee (UGC) in the past decade.

“The number of places was 470 in the 2016-17 academic year, representing an increase of 90% when compared with 250 in the 2005-06 academic year.

“In the 2019-20 to 2021-22 UGC triennium, the Government will further increase the number of UGC-funded medical training places by 60 each year. We expect that increasing the number of medical training places will alleviate the manpower shortage of doctors in the medium to long term.”

Dr Chui said the Hospital Authority will recruit all qualified locally trained medical graduates and provide them with specialist training, adding there will be more than 2,000 medical graduates becoming registered doctors in the coming five years.

The authority and the Department of Health will also proactively recruit eligible non-locally trained doctors through the limited registration arrangement to provide clinical services in the public healthcare system.

So far, about 20 applications under limited registration have preliminarily been assessed as eligible and successful applicants will start providing services in 2019-20 gradually, he said.

The Food & Health Bureau, the authority and the department have also collaborated with overseas Economic & Trade Offices in conducting promotion activities to encourage qualified non-locally trained doctors to practise in Hong Kong. 

Secretary for Food & Health Prof Sophia Chan plans to visit Australia in the middle of the year to promote the scheme.

For non-locally trained doctors who have passed the Licensing Examination and worked in the authority for three years under limited registration, the Medical Council is mulling the exemption of the internship requirement to provide more incentive for them to serve in Hong Kong, he added.