Press Releases
SFH on manpower of medical staff
Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) made by the
Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, at a media session after
attending a radio programme this morning (October 29):
Reporter: (on hiring overseas doctors)
Secretary for Food and Health: We have already convinced the public as well
as the doctors associations that there is a need for us to employ such
doctors for certain specialties and in this case particularly at the
Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments. Most of the A&E doctors in the
past only worked in the public hospitals because only public hospitals have
A&E Departments. But in recent years, many hospitals in the private sector
have been employing them because they want their expertise in their 24-hour
clinics. This is actually a positive move because this allows more expertise
be in the private hospitals. But at the same time, it also ends up with
shortage of doctors in the public sector. That is the reason why I think the
Hospital Authority needs to recruit certain number of such expertise in the
Department. A&E department is unlike other departments because they need to
have people on duty at certain time, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Each
shift will require certain number of doctors. It is not depending on how
many patients will turn up but rather we need sufficient capacity in case of
disaster and emergency in the society. This is an important aspect of the
service that requires at least certain number of doctors. That is the reason
why I think there is no reason to bar the Hospital Authority from employing
those doctors.
Reporter: You will not change your mind (on the recruitment of overseas
doctors)?
Secretary for Food and Health: I do not think there is any reason to change
this policy because the whole objective is to ensure we have sufficient
doctors in the important and critical departments that need to serve the
community.
Reporter: But this has made doctors unhappy......
Secretary for Food and Health: Certainly we do not want to make anybody
unhappy, not just doctors, we do not want to make the community unhappy,
too. If we have any crisis in the community and our A&E departments are not
able to fulfill their duty, that would be disastrous. I think the doctors
should understand that as well.
(Please also refer to the
Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, October 29, 2011
Issued at HKT 13:51
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