Mainland COVID-19 medical experts visit the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital on Feb 23, 2022. (PHOTO / INFORMATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT, HKSAR)
Twelve senior doctors from top public hospitals in Guangdong province will come to Hong Kong to ease the city’s acute medical worker shortage as soon as authorities approve the move, the Hong Kong Hospital Authority chairman said on Saturday.
Hong Kong Hospital Authority chairman Henry Fan Hung-ling said the exchange of medical staff between Hong Kong and the mainland cities of the Greater Bay Area is expected to enhance the quality of medical services, share experience, and cope with a manpower crunch in Hong Kong's public hospitals
In an online blog posted on Saturday, Henry Fan Hung-ling said that Guangdong’s provincial Health Commission has already submitted nominations of the 12 doctors, who will be the first batch of medical workers to visit Hong Kong under the GBA Healthcare Talents Visiting Programmes.
He added that the planned exchanges of nurse and radiographers under the programs also have progressed well, and he said he hopes they can begin at the end of this year.
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Fan said that with the increasing cooperation between Hong Kong and the mainland cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the exchange of medical staff between the two sides is expected to enhance the quality of medical services, share experience, and cope with a manpower crunch in Hong Kong’s public hospitals.
Fan also thanked 400 mainland medical workers who came to support Hong Kong’s fight against the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of the year. He said he believes this reflects the great strength of the cooperation between the medical staffs on both sides of the border.
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In commemoration of the friendship, protective gear signed by all 400 mainland medical workers was showcased in the Hospital Authority hall recently, Fan said.