Press Releases

SFH on seasonal influenza

Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, after attending a radio programme this morning (July 29):

Reporter: Professor Chan, in long term, has the Government come to any plans to solve the shortage of manpower in the medical sector?

Secretary for Food and Health: In solving the manpower (shortage), there are short term measures and also long term measures. On one hand, in the summer surge period, the Hospital Authority has increased their resources to hire more part-time healthcare professionals. For example, currently, we have about 350 doctors and 2200 nurses already working on part-time basis. The Department of Health has about 10 people who have voluntarily agreed to help out in the Hospital Authority after office hours’ time. Also, yesterday, the Hong Kong Medical Association has given a list of 24 private medical practitioners who agreed to work part-time for the Hospital Authority. I think these are some of the manpower measures. But obviously, if we look at the long term measures, the Food and Health Bureau has recently published a manpower report on healthcare professionals (Report of Strategic Review on Healthcare Manpower Planning and Professional Development) that projects the long term manpower needs. We would work on it on some of the recommendations.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Saturday, July 29, 2017
Issued at HKT 11:02
NNNN