Dear Natalie,
How are you doing? Is
everything fine with your fellowship program at Philadelphia?
I am not surprised to hear that you and your family have decided not
to move back to Hong Kong.
I know that you always have doubts about our Government’s commitment
to attract high-skilled and well-educated permanent residents like yourself to
return from abroad.
A few years ago, I was also shocked when I discovered that the passing rates of the Licensing Examination administered by the Medical Council of Hong Kong for international
medical graduates were unexpectedly low, only about 25% annually in average between
2009 and 2012.
Coincidentally, my office had received complaints from some members
of the medical sector against the Medical Council. I have been told that many Hong Kong residents
who have graduated
from medical schools abroad as well as overseas qualified and/ or registered doctors face hurdles of difficulties when they seek medical qualifications in Hong Kong due to the excessively high threshold of the
Licensing Examination.
The
Medical Council in a sense acts like a trade union to
impose a limit on overseas-trained doctors. This definitely undermines any attempt to import doctors to
ease the acute manpower shortage in public hospitals.
In fact, the transparency and
fairness of the operation of the Medical Council has
always been a matter of public concern. First of all, the procedure of handling complaint cases is unduly long. In some cases, it has even taken years to process. Moreover, as professional
members in the Preliminary Investigation Committee of the Council are in the majority, the public inevitably has the impression that the Committee is unlikely to be even-handed in dealing with complaints
against local doctors.
Last year, a judicial review case against the watchdog has once again alarmed
the public. Commenting the case in its
strongly worded ruling, the High Court agreed that there was ‘a lamentable
state of affairs in the Council’s handling of complaints’ and urged the Council
to take actions to improve the chaotic situations so as to gain back public confidence
in the medical profession.
I am not opposing to the principle of professional autonomy. But, how could we ensure that the Medical Council would place patients’ rights before the
doctors’ interests? I am afraid that the existing approach taken by the Council, which is always criticized as "regulation
by own peers", fails to
do just that.
Indeed, a
number of improvement measures including increasing the number of lay members in the Medical
Council had been proposed by a working group established
by the Council itself and endorsed by the then Health and Welfare Bureau in 2002. Regrettably, NO action had been
taken.
In 2005,
the then Secretary for Heath, Welfare and Food Bureau, Dr. York Chow Yat-Ngok,
even made a sudden U-turn in attitude, asserting that the Medical Council's
complaint handling mechanism had been working well, and that the Administration
did not see an immediate need to take forward the said proposals.
We could not wait anymore. Thus,
I have presented the Medical Registration (Amendment) Bill 2015 to the
Legislative Council at the end of November last year, and propose to add
four lay members to the Medical Council so that the ratio of its lay
members to professional members will be increased from 1:6 to 1:3.
Just two weeks after submitting my own member’s bill, I was delighted to learn that the
Government would introduce a bill in the first quarter of this year, covering my
proposal of increasing public presentation of the Medical Council alongside other measures to enhance its capacity and efficiency in handling
public complaints and conducting disciplinary inquiries.
I would
like to give thanks
to the Chief Executive Mr. CY Leung as well as the Chief Secretary for
Administration Mrs. Carrie Lam. I know both of them have been very supportive of my proposals.
It’s better late than never! I hope this
would be the first step in reforming the Medical Council. Two weeks ago, I was happy to hear from CY
Leung in his policy address that the Government would
also consider admitting overseas-trained doctors to meet local demand.
However, much more should be done apart from changing the
composition of the Medical Council if the Government really wants to address
the problem. For example, it should
consider extending the maximum duration of limited registration for overseas-trained
doctors to work here from one year to a longer term as well as taking reference
from the practice of Singapore by allowing medical specialists from recognized overseas
medical schools to register as medical practitioners in Hong Kong. In conclusion, more incentives should be
given to overseas-trained doctors and their families to move to Hong Kong.
Natalie, I understand that you have already started a new career
path in the US. As your dad, I support
any decisions you make.
Hong Kong is your hometown. I
know you love your hometown and one day you hope to come back and serve your
own people. I will keep you informed of
the latest development of the healthcare system here.
Wish you
all the best and take good care of yourself. See you in June!
Love, Dad
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