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The problem of medical manpower needs to be multi-pronged

2021-09-25T08:23:32.252Z


This Thursday (23rd), Fan Hongling, Chairman of the Hospital Authority, announced that the retirement age of the Authority will be raised from 60 to 65 with immediate effect. He pointed out that in the next ten years, there will be about 1,000 doctors, 5,000 nurses and 10,000


This Thursday (23rd), Fan Hongling, Chairman of the Hospital Authority, announced that the retirement age of the Authority will be raised from 60 to 65 with immediate effect.

He pointed out that in the next ten years, about 1,000 doctors, 5,000 nurses and 10,000 support staff will reach the original retirement age of 60. He hopes that the policy can extend the service period of some medical staff to alleviate the shortage of medical staff.

He also emphasized that the policy is people-oriented. The Ministry of Personnel will negotiate with those who will retire when the relevant personnel reach the age of 55. Whether to extend their appointment, extend their tenure, and transfer to a hospital, position or part-time job can be discussed.


Regarding the policy of the Hospital Authority, Ling Xiaozhi, the president of the Public Medical Doctors Association, and Liu Kaiwen, a professional medical staff and nurses association officer, all pointed out that the frontline medical care working environment in public hospitals is poor. Age, I think the policy is not effective.

Liu Kaiwen, a full-time medical staff and director of the Nurses Association, believes that the Hospital Authority sees the seriousness of the shortage of medical care, but measures to extend the retirement age may not attract frontline staff to stay.

(Photo by Ou Jiale)

There is no one way to solve all problems

The questioning of the medical staff group is not entirely unreasonable.

But the inability to completely solve the problem does not mean that the situation cannot be improved or alleviated.

Just as the government earlier introduced the relaxation of the "special registration" for non-locally trained specialists to come to Hong Kong, there are also doctor groups who questioned the inability to completely solve the problem, but ignored some of the positive effects of the new policy.

In the past, any way the government introduced to increase the supply of medical staff would be questioned in similar ways by local medical groups.

Even with policies such as increasing the degree of local medical students, some doctors questioned that some students with poor grades would enter the medical department, thereby dragging down the standard of medical students.

However, Hong Kong's medical system is seriously short of manpower, and there is no simple way to eradicate the problem.

In addition to increasing local training, the government should explore different ways to increase manpower.

Take this time extension of the retirement age as an example. Although it cannot be expected to greatly improve the current situation of insufficient manpower, it will not be useless.

Fan Hongling pointed out that 1,000 doctors, 5,000 nurses and 10,000 support staff will reach retirement age in the next ten years. This is not a small number.

If some of them can continue to stay in the medical system, it will be somewhat helpful.

On the other hand, the Hospital Authority has always openly recruited part-time doctors and other positions. Among them, many retired doctors have applied for appointments. This shows that there are indeed retired doctors who want to stay in some way.

In addition, whether to stay in office is voluntary and highly flexible. This is a win-win policy for both the HA and the medical staff, and there is no reason to oppose it.

Private medical care is not a doctor’s shield

For medical reform policies, medical staff groups always compare the treatment of private medical treatment with public medical treatment, pointing out that the core problem is the inability of public hospitals to retain staff.

However, Hong Kong's private medical system mainly faces high-income groups, so it can naturally hire medical staff at a higher price.

However, public medical care is for the general public, and the medical expenses that can be supported by the two are not in the same dimension. Therefore, to retain manpower, it is natural to find another way.

The poor working environment makes more medical staff do not want to stay in the public medical system. As a result, the working environment of public medical treatment becomes worse and becomes a vicious circle.

To solve the problem is not to compete with private medical care, but to increase the overall supply of medical staff, reduce costs with a large supply, and jointly improve the working environment.

The public medical system does face many problems, but medical care organizations cannot always use better private medical treatment as a shield to protect the interests of the industry.

The Hong Kong government should also resolutely deepen policy reforms, and continue to increase Hong Kong's medical staff in many ways. This is the way to solve the problem.

Dare to be tough on doctors. Can the government act on other interests?

Increasing doctors is the last word, not for the details. The shortage of doctors due to choking is not just because the special committee on the outflow of overseas doctors introduces overseas trained doctors to relieve the shortage of manpower. It is worthy of support.

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2021-09-25

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