SFH promotes new pathway to medical students and practitioners in Australia on admitting qualified non-locally trained doctors to practise in Hong Kong (with photos)
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The Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, attended a webinar jointly organised by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Sydney and the Australasian Medical Services Coalition today (May 6) to promote the new pathway for qualified doctors trained outside Hong Kong to obtain full registration and practise in Hong Kong. Around 200 participants, including medical students and practitioners in Australia, joined the webinar.
During the webinar, Professor Chan briefed the attendees on the details of the new pathway under the amended Medical Registration Ordinance, the promulgation of the first batch of recognised medical qualifications in late April and other follow-up actions taken by the Government to facilitate the admission of non-locally trained doctors to practise in Hong Kong. Representatives from the Department of Health (DH) and the Hospital Authority (HA) also introduced the career opportunities in their respective organisations to the attendees.
Professor Chan said, “Further to the enactment of the Medical Registration (Amendment) Ordinance 2021, non-locally trained doctors who possess recognised medical qualifications, subject to their fulfilment of certain criteria, may apply for special registration to practise in the public healthcare institutions (i.e. the DH, the HA, the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong) in Hong Kong. After serving for a certain period, obtaining recognised specialist qualifications and passing the assessment, they will be granted full registration to practise in Hong Kong. For non-locally trained medical graduates who possess the recognised medical qualifications but have yet to undergo internship outside Hong Kong, subject to their fulfilment of relevant criteria, they may take the Licensing Examination of the Medical Council of Hong Kong in order to apply for special registration to practise in the public healthcare institutions in Hong Kong. They may also obtain full registration after meeting the requirements applicable to all special registration doctors.”
“Established in November 2021, the Special Registration Committee (SRC) is to determine the list of recognised medical qualifications after reviewing programmes offered by non-local medical schools with quality comparable to those provided by the two medical schools in Hong Kong. The first batch of the list, consisting of two medical qualifications in Australia, was gazetted on April 29. The SRC is pressing ahead with the assessment of other non-local medical programmes and we expect that the second batch of the list will be promulgated within June 2022.”
Medical students and practitioners who attended the webinar welcomed the introduction of the new pathway which allows qualified non-locally trained doctors to obtain full registration and practise in Hong Kong. They opined that it will help attract overseas Hong Kong doctors to return to Hong Kong, and were eager to know more about the job opportunities in Hong Kong. Lastly, Professor Chan encouraged all medical students and practitioners in Australia to come to Hong Kong and serve citizens in the public healthcare institutions.