The Hospital Authority (HA) has approved a HK$322 million package aimed at settling a four-year dispute with doctors over off-site on-call duties during holidays and days off.

The package will compensate about 4,000 local doctors in sums ranging from HK$10,000 to HK$90,000 depending on rank and specialization. The offer will be presented formally to the doctors around the end of August. They will have one month to accept the proposal after that. First payments will be made in October.

A Court of Final Appeal ruling last October threw the whole matter into confusion when the court ruled that public doctors were entitled to days off in lieu, if they were required to be on call during public holidays or on their regular days off, whether or not doctors were called upon to work on those days.

The ruling, rejected doctors' claims for time off or overtime pay for on call days, but also found that days on which doctors were on call could not be counted as days off. The court reasoned that during call days doctors were required to remain no more than one-half hour's traveling time from hospitals and that they were barred from consuming alcohol.

Since the court's ruling, the HA has been negotiating with doctors on a settlement package. The package is retroactive to 2006, when a lower court first ruled that public doctors with on-site on-call duties were entitled to compensation but not overtime for time worked during days off.

The HA had already offered HK$629 million in a 2006 settlement to some 4,600 on-site, on-call doctors, of which HK$500 million has already been paid out.

Roughly 300 doctors did not accept the 2006 package. Two-hundred of those still are seeking redress through the Labor Tribunal.

The new package consists of HK$250 million for off site on call public doctors and roughly HK$72 million for doctors currently navigating judicial channels.

"They have the choice of going to the labor tribunal and receiving compensation there, but I think when they look at the offer and they sit back and think about what's involved with going to the labor tribunal, how long that will take, with lawyers involved, I am hopeful they will accept this offer," HA Chief Executive Shane Solomon said.

Medical officers with less than three years experience and who are generally not on off-site on-call duties will receive HK$10,000 to HK$18,000 while doctors with four to six years experience and who have off-site call duties once every 26 days will also receive HK$18,000.

Doctors with more than six years of experience typically on off-site on-call duties once every 14 days will receive HK$34,000. Consultants meanwhile who are on call one day in every five can claim HK$95,000 under the new package.

Doctors who do not have off-site duties and interns will not be eligible.

HA chairman Anthony Wu said the new package would be paid for out of the HA's budget, adding that with the payments, the authority would be probably run a deficit this year.

Medical sector lawmaker Leung Ka-lau, who is seeking HK$2million through the High Court, said, "The new package is based on average estimations for different ranks. There will be some colleagues who actually work more and they will feel it's unfair and some doctors who work less will get more than their fair share. It is up to each and every doctor, but there is plenty of time to consider it since they can wait up to six years to claim compensation."

China Daily

(HK Edition 06/25/2010 page1)