Announcement of third batch of recognised medical qualifications under Medical Registration Ordinance
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The list of the third batch of recognised medical qualifications will be gazetted on December 30 and take effect on the same day. It will be submitted to the Legislative Council for negative vetting on January 11, 2023. Together with the first two batches of medical qualifications recognised as announced at end April and early June this year respectively (see Annex 2), the SRC has so far recommended a total of 75 medical qualifications for recognition. The SRC is pressing ahead with the assessment of other non-local medical programmes that fulfil the stipulated criteria in order to determine the next batch of recognised medical qualifications.
The Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, said, "I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the SRC Chairperson, Professor Grace Tang, and all of the members for sparing no effort in conducting assessment of non-local medical programmes in the past few months. The SRC will continue to discharge its statutory duties and take forward the task of determining the full list of recognised medical qualifications."
In November 2021, the SRC was established under the Medical Council of Hong Kong (MCHK) in accordance with the amended Ordinance to determine the list of recognised medical qualifications after reviewing programmes offered by non-local medical schools with quality comparable to those provided by the two medical schools in Hong Kong. The SRC then submits the list to the Registrar of Medical Practitioners for promulgation.
Under the Ordinance, when determining the list of recognised medical qualifications, the SRC will consider and recommend a medical qualification that fulfils the following criteria:
(a) that is at the level of degree or higher;
(b) that is awarded by a body broadly comparable to any local university awarding medical qualifications in terms of international rankings; and
(c) that is broadly comparable to the medical qualifications awarded by any local university in terms of:
(i) curriculum of the programmes leading to the medical qualifications;
(ii) medium of instruction of the programmes; and
(iii) any other aspects the SRC considers appropriate.
After the Medical Registration (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 came into effect upon gazettal on October 29, 2021, non-locally trained doctors who possess recognised medical qualifications, subject to their fulfilment of certain criteria, may apply for special registration to practise in the public healthcare institutions (i.e. the Hospital Authority, the Department of Health, the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong) in Hong Kong. After serving for a certain period, obtaining recognised specialist qualifications and passing the assessment, they will be granted full registration to practise in Hong Kong. For non-locally trained medical graduates who possess the recognised medical qualifications but have yet to undergo internship outside Hong Kong, subject to their fulfilment of relevant criteria, they may take the Licensing Examination of the MCHK in order to apply for special registration to practise in the public healthcare institutions in Hong Kong. They may also obtain full registration after meeting the requirements applicable to all special registration doctors.
Ends/Wednesday, December 28, 2022
Issued at HKT 12:00
Issued at HKT 12:00
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