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Following is a question by the Hon Pan Pey-chyou and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (April 22):
Question:
Will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) the total number of vacancies of medical practitioners (MPs) in public hospitals under the Hospital Authority (HA) in each of the past 12 months, together with a breakdown by the rank and clinical department of the vacancies;
(b) whether HA has conducted any recruitment exercise for the vacancies in (a); if it has, of the number of vacancies which have been filled at present, broken down respectively by their rank and clinical department; if not all of the vacancies have been filled, the reasons for that; and
(c) as section 14A of the Medical Registration Ordinance (Cap. 161) stipulates that the Medical Council of Hong Kong may register a person who has obtained "acceptable overseas qualification" as an MP with limited registration, whether HA has filled vacancies by recruiting persons who have been registered under that provision as an MP with limited registration; if it has, what vacancies were filled in this way in the past three years; if not, the reasons for that; and whether HA will consider recruiting such MPs to fill the vacancies, in order to relieve the work pressure of serving MPs?
Reply:
President,
A total of 244 doctors in the Hospital Authority (HA) left service in the past 12 months, i.e. between April 2008 and March 2009. Among them, 72 were Consultants or Associate Consultants and 172 were Residents. In the same period, HA promoted a total of 252 serving doctors to the ranks of Consultant and Associate Consultant so as to fill the 72 vacancies arising from staff turnover mentioned above and another 180 newly created posts of Consultant and Associate Consultant. In addition, HA also recruited a total of 390 doctors in the same period, mainly to fill the vacancies of Resident resulting from staff turnover and the newly created posts of Resident. As a whole, the number of doctors in HA in March 2009 has increased by over 140 as compared with that in the same month last year.
(a) The number of doctor vacancies arising from staff turnover in HA (including HA hospitals and HA Head Office) in the past 12 months, with breakdown by rank and clinical department, is at Annex.
(b) HA fills the vacancies of Consultant or Associate Consultant mainly by internal promotion of serving doctors. As for the vacancies of Resident, they are mainly filled by a central recruitment exercise conducted between February and June each year recruiting fresh graduates from the Faculty of Medicine of the two local universities and other qualified doctors for specialist training in HA. Individual departments may conduct mid-year recruitment for other vacancies of Resident to address their operational needs and service demand if necessary.
Through the above exercises, the doctor vacancies arising from staff turnover in HA in the past 12 months have been filled. Figures on the appointment of doctors, with breakdown by clinical department and rank, are also at Annex.
(c) Under HA's existing arrangements, doctors with qualifications for registration under the Medical Registration Ordinance from Hong Kong and overseas would be given priority consideration in HA's recruitment exercise. Only when there is a lack of relevant local experts in certain specialties or service areas will HA consider applying for limited registration with the Medical Council of Hong Kong for particular doctors with an "acceptable overseas qualification" so that they can be employed to fill these special vacancies.
In the past three years, HA recruited seven doctors with limited registration from outside Hong Kong, with two among them appointed as Senior Medical Officers in the specialties of Anaesthesia and Pathology respectively for the above reason. The other five doctors were appointed on an unremunerated basis to receive training or for exchange of experience and knowledge in HA with subsidies provided by their organisations outside Hong Kong.
HA enhanced the remuneration package for its doctors in 2006 and 2007 with a view to attracting more doctors to join HA. There has been a steady increase in the manpower of doctors in various specialties in the past few years. HA will continue to make assessment on its manpower situation on a regular basis, and the appointment of doctors with limited registration will only be considered on a need basis.
Ends/Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Issued at HKT 15:18
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