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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Hospital Authority (HA) today (May 11) submitted the applications of three non-local doctors for limited registration to serve in public hospitals to the Medical Council of Hong Kong (MCHK).
The HA spokesman said the HA Task Force of Limited Registration Scheme earlier finalised the submissions of the second batch of doctors among the 160 applicants who graduated from non-local medical schools and who have applied to work in public hospitals under limited registration.
The HA had already submitted two of the applications to the MCHK in March this year. The submission today includes three applications in Family Medicine.
"Family Medicine is one of the specialties facing acute manpower shortfall with over 60 vacancies in various hospital clusters currently. As at March 2012, 31 part-time doctors were employed in Family Medicine, providing manpower support equivalent to 12 full-time doctors," the spokesman said.
Facing stringent doctor manpower shortage, the HA has implemented a series of measures to retain staff through enhancing professional training and providing better working environments, promotion prospects and remuneration, and launched an active recruitment drive for fully registered local doctors.
The HA reiterated that all five non-local applicants to be submitted for limited registration have passed a specialist training examination overseas which is comparable to the Intermediate Examinations of the constituent Colleges of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, and have post-internship experience of three years or above. They all have a licence to practise in their residing countries.
The spokesman said that the HA looked forward to the favourable consideration of the MCHK for the applications. "The submission of these five applications will conclude the 2011/12 recruitment exercise for non-local doctors. The HA will assess the latest manpower situation taking into account service demand and the July intake of new doctors. The Task Force will review in the third quarter of 2012 the need for conducting the non-local doctor recruitment exercise in 2012/13."
Ends/Friday, May 11, 2012
Issued at HKT 17:28
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