The Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Traditional Chinese Medicine announced on Monday (30th) that it plans to select public TCM medical institutions in Guangzhou and Shenzhen within this year to recruit Hong Kong and Macau TCM physicians by contract.
On the same day, the Provincial Health Commission announced that seven TCM medical institutions in the province recruited 12 Hong Kong and Macao registered TCM practitioners.
The Secretary for Food and Health, Chen Zhaoshi, welcomed this measure, saying that local Chinese medicine practitioners can further work in the national medical system to promote Chinese medicine exchanges. "At the same time, Hong Kong Chinese medicine doctors, especially the younger generation of Chinese medicine doctors, have the opportunity to develop in the Greater Bay Area. ".
The 12 job vacancies introduced by the Guangdong side are measures to further relax the practice of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong and Macau following CEPA.
CEPA allows Hong Kong people to practise privately after passing the Mainland physician qualification examination and obtaining a certificate. The new measure is part of the "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Chinese Medicine Highland Construction Plan (2020-2025)". Chinese medicine practitioners are directly engaged in clinical and research work or training.
It is a good thing for the Mainland to further relax restrictions on the practice of Chinese medicine in Hong Kong. Even though the teaching of Chinese medicine in the Mainland mostly adopts Western medicine and is different from the local curriculum, there is still plenty of room for cooperation and exchanges between the two places.
If the measures go well, there may be more related job vacancies.
Zhang Weilin said that there are enough Chinese medicine practitioners in Hong Kong, but believes that the breadth and depth of local Chinese medicine professionals are insufficient.
(Photo by Zhang Haowei)
The surplus of Chinese medicine practitioners is the result of inadequate policies
However, in addition to welcoming the measures, the Hong Kong Government and the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government must also assess the short-, medium- and long-term impact of the measures on the supply and demand of Chinese medicine practitioners.
Chen Zetao, deputy director of the Coordination Department of the Liaison Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said that there is a surplus of registered Chinese medicine practitioners in Hong Kong. This move reflects the mainland's care and concern for Hong Kong.
However, the oversupply of Chinese medicine practitioners in Hong Kong is not due to the small medical needs of the people.
In fact, the overall medical demand in Hong Kong is strong. It is just that the people who seek medical attention prefer Western medicine, especially public hospitals.
According to a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Research Institute of the Chinese University of China, about 35% of respondents patronized Chinese medicine last year, which is half the rate of about 72% of Western medicine, and 87% of respondents agreed that the government should include Chinese medicine in public medical services.
Although Chinese medicine has long been rooted in Hong Kong, two sets of data show that Chinese medicine still has room for expansion in the public and private markets, enabling more Chinese medicine practitioners to make ends meet.
Furthermore, the "Review Report on Medical Manpower Planning and Professional Development Strategies" published in 2017 estimates that the number of Chinese medicine practitioners has so far exceeded demand, but the gap between supply and demand will gradually narrow in the next few years, and it is expected to be balanced by 2025.
Furthermore, it is expected that the first Chinese medicine hospital to operate in 2025 will absorb some of the staff, and the demand for Chinese medicine is expected to increase.
Answer: The Tung Wah Group of Hospitals has 41 medical and health service units. In addition to 5 hospitals, there are also integrated Chinese and Western medicine treatment centers/service units, integrated Chinese and Western medicine health management centers, mobile Chinese medicine clinics, community Chinese medicine clinics, Chinese medicine inspection centers, The dental services for the mentally handicapped, the Women’s Health Examination Department, etc., provide diversified medical services for people with different needs and different fields.
Expand the application and give full play to its strengths
Therefore, the Hong Kong government should not regard Chinese medicine practitioners as the manpower that needs to be exported, but should think about how to use policies and measures to make use of the advantages of Chinese medicine in treatment, diagnosis, and post-illness treatment. This is to develop Hong Kong's Chinese medicine profession and at the same time relieve it. The diagnosis pressure of western medicine.
At present, public hospitals have Chinese medicine outpatient clinics and Chinese and Western medicine collaboration pilot programs, but they only target stroke, cancer relief, low back pain and shoulder and neck pain treatments. They have not been extended to more diseases, which limits the application of Chinese medicine in hospitals.
In contrast, the Hong Kong University (Shenzhen) Hospital has special Chinese medicine departments for oncology, immunoendocrinology, acupuncture and massage, spleen and stomach, etc., coexisting with other Western medicine specialties, and its operating model is also worthy of reference by the public medical departments in Hong Kong.
With the integration of urban systems in the Greater Bay Area, the flow of talents can be said to be within expectations.
For Hong Kong, if there is indeed a large supply of talents in individual industries, the outflow is not a problem.
However, the so-called surplus of Chinese medicine is actually the result of insufficient use of resources. Now that medical resources are insufficient to meet the needs of the population, the Hong Kong government cannot just watch the Chinese medicine talents be taken away by Guangdong cities.
Undergraduates enrolling in Chinese medicine courses in local universities, and Hong Kong students studying in Mainland Chinese Medicine Hospitals are willing to return to Hong Kong to practice, somewhat indicating that Hong Kong is still attractive.
In this regard, the Hong Kong Government should try its best to expand the domestic demand market and retain them to serve Hong Kong people.
The same is true not only in the field of Chinese medicine, but also in fields such as innovation and technology and business.
The Hong Kong Government, the Liaison Office of the Central Committee and even the establishments conceived the idea of talent mobility in the Greater Bay Area. In many cases, they are also solving the problems of unemployment and overstaffing for Hong Kong, but this is also wrong in terms of interests and morals.
Officials must change their thinking, first review the causes of unemployment and overstaffing, and attract talents through the establishment of industries and the improvement of the business environment.
Hong Kong's solution to its own problems is precisely to contribute to the development of the Greater Bay Area.
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