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Medical Council chairman Professor Joseph Lau Wan-yee. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Hong Kong medical body's licensing exam for overseas doctors slammed as 'too broad' as city's specialist shortage grows

As Medical Council awaits money for reforms, including its licensing exam, some overseas professionals call existing model 'traumatising'

The government's delay in giving new funding to a doctors' licensing body is holding up a revamp of a qualification exam for overseas practitioners who are being sought to shore up a severe manpower shortage in the city.

The delay came as those who took the exam told the it had been a "traumatising" and dispiriting experience for them.

Medical Council chairman Professor Joseph Lau Wan-yee said the body would set up an online platform updated with books, lecture notes and mock exam questions used by local medical students to help overseas practitioners pass Hong Kong's qualification exam once funding was granted.

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It was part of a proposal to reform the statutory watchdog, including an increase in the number of panel members to speed up hearings after criticism that disciplinary actions took too long and that local doctors were excessively protected.

But Lau stressed the exam's rigour would not be compromised as it had to stay on par with the exam taken by local students.

One doctor from North America, who attempted the examination twice in the city, described the experience as traumatising and turned to employment in Singapore instead.

"It was very hard to prepare and there were no specific books," the general practitioner said. She sat for the exam in 2010 and 2011, but failed both times.

Other countries would have offered preparatory courses for candidates, she said, but the Hong Kong exam was too "in-depth and specialised" despite her training in different specialities during medical school.

She opted to work at a public hospital in Singapore, where no examination was set but where she was required to work under a supervisor who reported on her performance every six months to the local medical council.

Hong Kong's doctor shortage is especially severe in the public sector, with a shortfall of 340 at the end of last year. The Hospital Authority expects that figure to hit 400 next year.

Importing overseas doctors is seen as a remedy, but the move is controversial in the local medical community.

The licensing exam has not been easy. In the past five years, among the 545 doctors from other countries who sat for the exam's clinical knowledge section - a component that must be passed within five years along with a professional knowledge section - only 211 made the cut.

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The experience of the North American doctor was shared by one trained in Australia who, despite passing the local exam, criticised it as "too broad".

That doctor, who declined to reveal her name, succeeded on her second attempt and was practising locally.

"I didn't know what the examiners were looking for and the marking scheme was not transparent," she said.

She also said she had to look for learning materials from British websites to prepare for the exam in the absence of any resources from the council.

In response, Lau said it was "too politically sensitive" for the city to follow Singapore's steps in using a list of recognised institutions to screen foreign graduates' qualifications.

It was also "too difficult to define what to recognise and what not to", he said.

Local doctors argued a generic exam was necessary to ensure quality among foreign doctors.

Dr Pierre Chan, president of the Public Doctors' Association, said: "It's a licensing exam. It is essential that it be broad and have few limits as they might treat any kind of disease."

The council submitted a reform proposal to the government in 2002 to double its number of lay members, but there was no progress. The latest proposal to set up an online platform is still pending government approval.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Funding lag hurts intake of doctors
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