Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ1: HA contract doctors
Following is a question by the Dr Hon Kwok Ka-ki and a reply by the Secretary
for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today
(November 16):
Question:
As the Hospital Authority (HA) has implemented the Contract Medical Officers
Scheme and a progressive reduction of the remuneration for new recruits year by
year, there is severe disparity in remuneration among junior medical
practitioners who perform the same duties but joined HA in different years. In
addition, the contracts of those medical practitioners who have completed six
years of training are due to expire at the end of June next year. I have learnt
that quite a number of such medical practitioners intend to leave HA upon the
expiry of their contracts. Coupled with the wastage of senior medical
practitioners in recent years, there will thus be a succession gap and shortage
in experienced medical practitioners in public hospitals. In this connection,
will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) the current remuneration of the above frontline medical practitioners whose
contracts are about to expire and, for comparison purposes, a list of the
remuneration of those who had joined HA earlier; and whether HA will renew the
contracts of such medical practitioners as Resident Specialists next year; if it
will, of the details of the renewal arrangements, including their rank,
remuneration and fringe benefits;
(b) as the authorities have indicated that HA is considering establishing a
mechanism for converting some well-performing contract staff to permanent terms
of employment, of the criteria to be adopted by HA in deciding whether or not
the employment terms of a contract medical practitioner will be so converted,
and when such arrangement will be implemented; and
(c) in addition to the arrangements on employment terms, of the specific
training arrangements to be made by HA to attract medical practitioners whose
contracts are about to expire to continue to work and receive training in HA;
the results of HA's assessment of the impact of failing to retain such medical
practitioners on the future medical services of Hong Kong, and the number of
HA's existing medical practitioners who are willing to renew their contracts,
and the reasons for those who are not?
Reply :
Madam President,
(a) The medical practitioners at Hospital Authority (HA) who will have completed
six years of specialist training by June 2006 were recruited in the year 2000.
The current total cash package for this group of doctors is $57,975 per month,
which is inclusive of a basic salary, all applicable allowances, provident fund
contributions or end of contract gratuity. In comparison, the total monthly
package in the 6th year of service for medical practitioners who joined the HA
in 1998 and 1999 was $96,979, and for those who joined before 1998 the package
was $113,252. The downward adjustments in the remuneration package can be
largely attributed to the replacement of the cash allowance by a smaller monthly
allowance from 1998 onwards and the introduction of a new Resident Pay Scale
with a lower starting salary for doctors recruited in or after 2000.
Resident doctors who have successfully attained their specialist qualification
may apply for Resident Specialist posts in the HA. According to existing
practice, on appointment as Resident Specialists medical practitioners recruited
in 2000 would be offered the same remuneration package that they currently
enjoy, with continued progression on the Resident Pay Scale with yearly salary
point increment subject to good performance. The term of the contract would
normally be three years. The number of Resident Specialist posts that may be
available in 2006 would depend on HA's service needs. However, judging from HA's
current manpower situation and recent turnover trend of doctors, it is expected
that there would be sufficient openings for the majority of Resident doctors who
attain their specialist qualification next year.
The HA is fully aware of the effects of pay disparity on staff morale and is
looking into the feasibility of enhancing the remuneration packages of Resident
doctors within the confines of its budgetary situation. A working group
comprising around twenty frontline doctors at various levels of seniority was
commissioned a few months ago to review the existing contractual and training
arrangements for contract doctors and make proposals on how the HA could be more
effective in providing these doctors with the appropriate incentive and
motivation for good performance and in retaining the high caliber doctors within
the public medical sector. The options put forward by the working group are
still being developed and are being considered by the HA. It is expected that a
decision on the proposals would be made by early 2006.
(b) Apart from the proposals put forward by the working group, the HA is also
considering options to give well-performing contract doctors the prospect of
upgrading to longer terms of employment subject to budgetary constraints. The
objectives of this proposal are two-fold: to provide contract staff with
additional incentive to put in good performance and a means of attaining higher
job security; and to enable the HA to retain a core group of staff, enhance
stability in its manpower resources and foster staff loyalty. The HA management
will work out the selection criteria in the coming months, with the
participation of frontline staff. The criteria will need to be objective, fair,
transparent, workable and affordable. In addition, to ensure that only genuinely
good staff are offered longer employment terms, the selection criteria would be
largely performance-based with particular emphasis on performance consistency
over an extended period as well as being based on HA's needs for the work to be
done on an ongoing basis. The implications of the proposal will have to be
considered carefully and hence the HA has not set a definitive timetable on the
proposal at the moment.
(c) In respect of impact assessment, there are 182 Resident doctors currently
receiving training in HA's specialist training programs who were recruited in
2000, accounting for around 4% of the total strength of HA doctors. Since this
group of doctors was the first to be remunerated under the new Resident Pay
Scale, there is no historical basis to estimate the number of those who would
depart upon successful completion of specialist training. However, as a matter
of fact, of those 1,700 contract trainee doctors currently working in HA, over
the past 18 months, 61 (or 3.7%) of them declined HA's offer of contract
renewal, with another 89 (or 5.5%) resigning.
We believe that the HA should be able to attract and retain the necessary
medical staff by providing Resident Trainees and Resident Specialists with a
rewarding career, fair remuneration and good opportunities for continuous
professional development. The HA would carefully consider the proposals put
forward by the working group and make a decision with a view to ensuring that
the HA would be well placed to maintain the high standard of its medical
services within its financial parameters in the many years to come.
Ends/Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Issued at HKT 11:53
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