A lone lawmaker is seeking to reduce the dominance of the cabal of doctors in Hong Kong - in an uphill battle against one of the city's most guarded professions.

Legislator Tommy Cheung Yu-yan's private member's bill aims to expand the public's management of the Medical Council of Hong Kong (MCHK) in a bid to improve oversight and alleviate an acute labor shortage of doctors.

Cheung's proposal may be bitter medicine for the profession. He says doctors fear that the arrival of overseas peers will lead to lower earnings for private sector doctors. This is an area where costs are opaque and a full list of charges is often inadequate.

The MCHK's members are irked by Cheung's unilateral move - made without consulting the nearly 60-year-old body, whose dominant position has remained virtually unchanged for decades.

Hong Kong's medical sector is closely guarded. The nearly 100-year-old Hong Kong Medical Association, in its 90th anniversary annual report, said that since its inception it had "jealously guarded the rights and privileges of its members".

It also proclaimed that it continues to champion the Licensing Examination. This bars the vast majority of overseas doctors from practicing in Hong Kong.

But Cheung, the father of two US-trained surgeons, said the exams made it difficult, if not impossible, for Hong Kong students who studied medicine abroad to qualify in Hong Kong. The barrier was an obstruction to solving manpower shortages in the public health sector, Cheung argued.

A brain drain of public sector doctors has fed the private sector, exacerbating manpower shortages at a time when the growing aging population is putting more demands on healthcare.

Singapore allows graduates from approved medical schools to practice in designated institutions - in addition to offering a cash subsidy for citizens studying abroad to lure them back to practice. Britain, meanwhile, has a two-part licensing exam for foreign medical graduates, with a pass rate of over 50 percent.

However, pass rates in Hong Kong are typically 5 to 8 percent annually, according to policy research organization HKGolden50.

Cheung proposes opening the 28-member council to wider public participation, by at least doubling the number of lay member to eight. This would bring the council's doctor-to-public member ratio from 6:1 to 3:1, to improve the public's role in regulating the profession.

Cheung's battle to push through a private member's bill is monumental, with member's bills rarely becoming law, while the city's doctors have proven to be a formidable force.

tim@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 11/17/2015 page7)