The president of the Association of Public Medical Doctors, Ma Chung Yee, believes that the new committee may not be the gatekeeper for Hong Kong‘s medical standards. Photo by Radio Television Hong Kong
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced at the Legislative Council Question and Answer Session on Thursday (4) that she intends to introduce legislation to introduce qualified “non-locally trained doctors” to practice in Hong Kong. A day after the event, the diet legislator, Liberal Party’s Tommy Cheung, also proposed a private bill, suggesting that the government further relax the threshold, including the importation of non-locally trained doctors is not limited to permanent residents of Hong Kong, foreign graduates of Hong Kong, or Hong Kong people’s children medical students can return to Hong Kong internship, etc.. Some doctors are worried that the standard of medical care in Hong Kong will decline.
Mrs. Lam disclosed at the meeting that the legislation has three main points, the introduction of “non-local training doctors” must be permanent residents of Hong Kong, applicants must graduate from a recognized non-local medical school, and obtain local medical registration or specialist registration, and must later practice in Hong Kong public hospitals within a period of Time, not directly private practice.
In contrast to the previous expression of “overseas doctors”, Mrs. Lam repeatedly described the new mechanism as “non-local trained doctors” in the conference. She claimed that the shortage of manpower in Hong Kong’s public healthcare system “is an indisputable fact”, even if the current stage of increasing the number of medical student places, but also because of the time required for training and other factors, can not immediately solve the problem.
This time, the Hong Kong government to develop a “recognized foreign medical schools”, the direction is similar to Singapore, but according to Singaporean law, the Minister of health in consultation with the Singapore Medical Council can be revised after the list of accredited medical schools, but according to the Hong Kong Food and Health Bureau on Thursday night to the Legislative Council, it is proposed to set up a new committee outside the Medical Council to determine what institutions are “recognized foreign medical schools”.
According to the government document, the new committee members include the Director of Health, the Chief Executive Officer of HA, the Chairman of the Medical Council, the Chairman of the Academy of Medicine, the deans of the two medical schools and other members appointed by the government, and all the elected representatives in the existing mechanism will be deleted, including representatives elected by the Medical Council, representatives elected by all doctors, and lay members of patient organizations. In other words, the government will skip the MCHK mechanism and have the power to decide which overseas medical schools can be included in the accreditation list.
As a member of the Medical Council of the Association of Public Medical Doctors, President Ma Chung Yi believes that the new committee may not be for Hong Kong’s medical standards gate-keeping, do not see how this mechanism can effectively select foreign doctors particularly suitable for Hong Kong’s medical front-line work, but also do not trust the committee focus on selecting doctors who can cope with front-line work.
Ma Zhongyi said: the university professors of the medical school may choose some universities with high scientific achievements, so as to absorb the doctors who can help them do scientific research in the future. The Department of Health may want to take on doctors who do public administration, or they may even want to make Hong Kong’s public health policy more and more domestic, or they may want to find doctors who can do that. But these are not the problems of understaffing and long waiting times for outpatient clinics that we are talking about.
Chinese doctors do poorly on the Hong Kong practice exams, but the new mechanism allows them to practice without exams
Another concern is that the new mechanism allows Chinese and local doctors to practice in Hong Kong without having to go through the licensing examination, and there are concerns that the new mechanism may lower the standard of medical care in Hong Kong.
This reporter checked the medical board in recent years, the licensing test information, found that the Chinese doctors pass rate is low, only about 15% to 20%, significantly behind the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia candidates forty to sixty percent, and in the test on the level of medical English skills, Chinese candidates pass rate in the fifty to ninety percent range.
Medical students: New mechanism may create distrust between doctors and physicians, patients
Alex (a pseudonym), a medical student who is interning at a public hospital, believes that the new mechanism is unfair to local medical students in Hong Kong and worries that the new mechanism, which allows doctors from China or other regions to practice without examination, may increase friction between doctors and doctors, and distrust between doctors and patients.
Alex said: the level of Chinese doctors is more mixed, the level or and Hong Kong doctors do not match. It is possible that doctors trained in Hong Kong and China will bring friction and mistrust because of the difference in ability, and always doctors are about cooperation. Patients too, they all worry that Chinese doctors may not be the best and the relationship between doctors and patients may get worse.
For the future prospects, Alex intends to continue practicing in public hospitals, but admits that he is not optimistic about the future, saying that the new mechanism will bring challenges for himself, “even if the workload can be reduced, but always have to learn how to communicate with foreign doctors, because they are not trained by the Hong Kong medical structure, I may have to patient and teach them in the future.
Zhang Yuren advocates a lower threshold Chen Peiyan denounced as a political decision
At the same time, Tommy Cheung proposed a Member’s Bill on the Medical Registration Ordinance on Friday, proposing to empower the Secretary for Food and Health to “recognize” medical qualifications awarded outside Hong Kong at a level not lower than that of the Licensing Examination or that of local medical graduates, and to allow Hong Kong permanent residents, or children of permanent residents, who have obtained such qualifications to return to Hong Kong for internship after graduation and enjoy the same exemption from the Licensing Examination as local medical graduates. The pathway. In addition, he suggested that foreign registered doctors working in the Department of Health, the Hospital Authority or the two universities should be exempted from the Licensing Examination and be granted a full license to practice in Hong Kong after a continuous employment of not less than five years.
Medical Councilor Chan Pui-yin expressed disappointment about the amendment, Chan Pui-yin pointed out that doctors have worked very hard to fight the Epidemic in this year, “According to past experience, every time we pour this kind of thing, it will cause different social discussion, or political turmoil, which is a political decision. He asked to amend the law to hold public hearings.
Chan Pui-yin also pointed out that the establishment of the doctor registration examination is due to the return of Hong Kong in 1997, questioned the amendment of the legislation to exempt the examination, “is Mimi to go back to the pre-97 situation? He pointed out that in the past, under the limited registration, most overseas doctors will choose to work in universities, will not go to the most “burst pot” in public hospitals, “in the real environment, (the amendment) does not help us” “I hope the government to listen clearly, what do we want …… government with so much action to change a proven examination system, I do not know the impact on The future level of health care brought how much impact, may be more than worth the loss.
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