Tag: Doctors

The Story: Eric Ruby, a pediatrician practicing in Taunton, Massachusetts -- a town about 40 miles south of Boston -- is one of the few...

The Medical Council ballot on Wednesday failed to pass any of four proposals aimed at fully exempting relevant overseas-trained specialists from internships Doctors rejected chairman Professor Joseph Lau’s claim that some council members had voted differently to what they had earlier stated Doctors have denied politics were to blame for the failure of a ballot to select proposals to attract more overseas doctors to Hong Kong. The Medical Council on Wednesday failed to pass any of the four proposals, which aimed to fully exempt internship requirements for overseas-trained specialists who have passed the city’s licensing exam. The new proposals aimed to further relax the requirements so as to relieve the overburdened public health care system, which is about 300 doctors short at any given time. The council’s chairman Professor Joseph Lau Wan-yee had suggested on Wednesday that some council members had voted differently despite saying they would like to relax the internship requirements. Lam added that, in general, there was a consensus among the medical sector on the need to relax the internship requirements. But the voting method had prevented the council from coming up with the best option for doing so. What is he thinking of … shifting the responsibility onto people who hold different opinions?” he added. Doctors’ argument for shutting out foreign competition does not stand up to scrutiny One of the four options would have required three years’ work experience with the Hospital Authority, either of the city’s two medical schools or the Department of Health, as well as passing the licensing exam during that time. Lam believed three members voted against all of the four proposals, resulting in all of the options falling short. Another council member Dr Ho Pak-leung also blamed the election method.