Hong Kong government announced in April that 27 university medical programs are recognized for overseas doctors, including two in Australia, three in Canada, one in Singapore, six in the United Kingdom and 15 in the United States, while no medical program from universities in Mainland is on the list.
The Food and Health Bureau said today (May 20) at a Legislative Council committee that the Special Registration Committee drew up the list of approved medical qualifications based on the university's international ranking, course content and language of instruction, etc., which can be compared with the two local medical schools.
Several Members questioned the exclusion of mainland universities and were concerned about whether the list would include medical programs from universities such as Tsinghua and Peking University.
The Food and Health Bureau said that the recognition of overseas universities does not mean that there is a priority ranking, but because of the language of instruction and other factors. Priority was given to overseas universities whose teaching language is English, and the mainland medical programs will not be rejected. The committee need to handle the list carefully, and will continue to discuss to gradually release the rest of the list.
The government intends to introduce overseas doctors due to the shortage of local ones. In November of last year, the government set up a committee under the Medical Council of Hong Kong according to the revised Medical Registration (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 to draw up a list of recognised medical qualifications.
Non-locally trained doctors with recognised medical qualifications who meet the relevant criteria may apply for special registration to work as doctors in the public sector. They will be formally registered to practise in Hong Kong after a certain period of service, obtaining recognised specialist qualifications and passing an assessment.
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