Kuang Yukun (left) works with Yeung Yiu-cheong at Princess Margaret Hospital in South China's Hong Kong, Oct 12, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

HONG KONG - At 8:00 am in a ward at Princess Margaret Hospital, Kuang Yukun, who arrived at work one hour earlier, was checking his patients' medical records.

About six months ago, a group of new faces appeared in the medical team of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's public hospitals. Kuang, an associate chief physician from the pulmonary and critical care medicine department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, is among over 80 healthcare professionals from the Chinese mainland who came to the HKSAR to exchange for about a year under Greater Bay Area Healthcare Talents Visiting Programs.

The visiting programs, implemented by the HKSAR's Hospital Authority, aim to foster the development of the healthcare sector between the Chinese mainland and the SAR, and broaden the talent pool in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in the long run. The programs allowed healthcare professionals from Hong Kong and Guangdong province to work and learn in each other's public health system, thereby improving the quality of medical services in the two places.

Participating in the visiting programs included doctors, Chinese medicine experts, nurses and other healthcare professionals. A total of 10 doctors, all from Grade 3A (the highest grade in China) hospitals in southern China's Guangdong province, came to Hong Kong and worked in different public hospitals. Kuang has been serving as an associate consultant of medicine and geriatrics at Princess Margaret Hospital in the New Territories.

Kuang Yukun (right) and Yeung Yiu-cheong walk along a corridor at Princess Margaret Hospital in South China's Hong Kong, Oct 12, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

The mainland doctors who came to Hong Kong this time have rich experience and are fluent in Cantonese. They have quickly adapted to the working life of Hong Kong hospitals.

Yeung Yiu-cheong, deputy chief of service of medicine and geriatrics of Princess Margaret Hospital

"The mainland doctors who came to Hong Kong this time have rich experience and are fluent in Cantonese. They have quickly adapted to the working life of Hong Kong hospitals," Yeung Yiu-cheong, deputy chief of service of medicine and geriatrics of Princess Margaret Hospital, said.

To help Kuang and other mainland doctors adapt to their work, Yeung, from Hong Kong, arranged for them to make ward rounds and see outpatients together with local doctors in the first two months after they had arrived.

Under the public healthcare system in Hong Kong, besides doctors and nurses, there are also other professionals, including physiotherapists and speech therapists, to provide patients with recovery and follow-up services.

"The management of chronic diseases in Hong Kong's public health system is comprehensive, allowing patients to be taken good care of even after being discharged," Kuang said, adding that the mainland could take a leaf out of Hong Kong's book for this.

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Liu Jiali (right) talks with Savina Sze while walking along a corridor at Prince of Wales Hospital in South China's Hong Kong, Oct 18, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Liu Jiali, a nurse from Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, was one of the 70 mainland nurses who came to exchange in Hong Kong through the visiting programs.

Since she obtained a doctorate in nursing in 2016, Liu has been focusing on geriatric cancer care. Starting her exchange in Hong Kong, Liu joined Shatin Hospital to do clinical practicum and exchange with a local healthcare team by sharing nursing knowledge and clinical experience with each other. She is now serving at Prince of Wales Hospital.

With keen observation and meticulous mind, Liu has helped many patients to relieve their worries, and even alleviated their health threats.

After a busy day, Liu returned to the dormitory and started to write "home" a letter. She did not send the letter to her family in the mainland, but to Savina Sze, a nurse consultant of gerontology from the Hospital Authority.

"I asked them to write me a letter every month to talk about work or daily life as if I were their family," Sze, who was responsible for 10 mainland nurses during their Hong Kong tour, she said.

Liu Jiali speaks during an interview at Prince of Wales Hospital in South China's Hong Kong, Oct 18, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

This was not the first time Sze worked with mainland nurses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she took care of patients in Hong Kong together with the medical support team from the mainland. However, there was not much opportunity for in-depth communication.

Sze, who has been in the nursing profession in Hong Kong for more than 20 years, described this exchange as an eye-opener for her. "I have learned the latest development of medical care in the mainland. For instance, mainland hospitals will use 5G technology to boost ambulance services," she said.

Liu Jiali (left) and Savina Sze work in a ward at Prince of Wales Hospital in South China's Hong Kong, Oct 18, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

In his latest policy address, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said that the HKSAR government will strengthen the two-way training and exchange of healthcare talents between the HKSAR and the mainland, while continuing to take forward the visiting programs.

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The Hospital Authority will continue to strengthen its ties with medical institutions in the mainland and deepen exchanges between medical professionals. The second batch of nurses from Guangdong province is expected to arrive in Hong Kong by the end of this year or next year.

Liu suggested that exchanges between the two places are of great significance, which will not only benefit patients, but also help promote the development of the nursing profession.

"I hope exchanges between the two places can extend to scientific research and clinical trials, and this time's exchange is a good start," Kuang said.