This file photo dated Sept 5, 2017 shows healthcare professionals at Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong. (PHOTO / HKSAR GOVERNMENT)

HONG KONG - Hong Kong Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee applauded the Hospital Authority’s extension of the retirement age of frontline medical workers in its bid to ease the staff shortage in Hong Kong public hospitals.

In an announcement on Thursday, the HA said that staff members will be given the flexibility in choosing the time and duration of extending employment up to the age of 65, instead of 60.

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In the press briefing on the measure, the authority's chairman Henry Fan Hung-ling explained that some 1,000 doctors, 5,000 nurses and 10,000 support staff will reach the age of 60 in the next 10 years.

Compounding the brain drain is a spike in the number of doctors and nurses leaving public hospitals in the past two years, to retire, join the private sectors or simply take a career break. The turnover rate has risen to 4.9 percent for doctors and 6.7 percent for nurses in the year starting from July 2020.

The Food and Health Bureau welcomed the Hospital Authority’s staff retention measures and noted it will continue its multi-pronged strategy to ease the shortage of healthcare professionals in the public healthcare system

"Facing the current retirement wave, which will last for some years, the HA has to take proactive measures to curb the brain drain, in particular, to retain experienced staff to cope with the increasing service demand in future,” Fan said.

HA estimated that around 1,650 retiring clinical professionals and some 4,000 support staff will participate in the late retirement program in the next five years.

Meanwhile, extra posts in promotion ranks will be created to avoid promotion blockage for serving staff.

Multi-pronged strategy

The Food and Health Bureau welcomed the HA’s staff retention measures and noted it will continue its multi-pronged strategy to ease the shortage of healthcare professionals in the public healthcare system.

Speaking in a press event on Friday, the health chief Chan said the government has been concerned with the shortage of medical workers in public hospitals, noting the latest figures indicated there are 600 unfilled vacancies for doctors.

“The shortage increases the work pressure of existing staff on the one hand and affects the service quality on the other hand. Therefore, we’re really concerned,” she said.

Chan said the government has been increasing funding for public medical services in the past few years. In the 2021/22 fiscal year, the government has allocated HK$82.4 billion for HA, representing a 46 percent hike as compared with the 2017/18 fiscal year.

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She appealed for legislative support for the Medical Registration (Amendment) Bill 2021, aimed at attracting more qualified non-locally trained doctors to practice in Hong Kong.

“We hope the second reading will resume in October,” she said.

After the passage of the bill, the government will immediately set up a special registration committee to accredit overseas universities so that the recruitment for non-local doctors can start as soon as possible.

On Thursday, HA also announced the creation of a new rank of Associate Nurse Consultant (ANC) to enhance the nursing grade career structure.

The new rank of ANC, coming between the ranks of advanced practice nurse and nurse consultant, means nurses can follow a more traditional career ladder when having specialty development, explains HA chief executive Tony Ko.