Universities in Hong Kong are exploring setting up the city’s third medical school amid a healthcare sector manpower crunch.
Several local universities have taken the lead in putting forward proposals to the government.
The Post takes a look at how a third medical school would address the city’s medical problems and boost innovation developments.
1. Why does Hong Kong need a new medical school?
Hong Kong’s healthcare system has been facing a severe shortage of doctors in recent years, the impact of which has been worsened by an ageing population.
According to data from the Health Bureau, the doctor-to-population ratio was up from 1.8 doctors per 1,000 people in 2011 to 2.1 in 2021.
Of the city’s 16,000 doctors, only 42 per cent, or 6,842, work in public hospitals under the Hospital Authority as of last year.
The turnover rate for public hospital doctors stood at 6.1 per cent between January and December last year.
The attrition rate has decreased from 6.9 per cent in 2022-23, down from 8.1 per cent in 2021-22.
Still, the city is estimated to be short of 1,440 doctors next year, with the figure rising to 1,570 by 2030.
Hong Kong currently has two medical schools operated by the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), producing a total of 590 graduates every year.
2. Which universities are making plans?
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) is reportedly discussing establishing a medical school with Imperial College London, with a proposal to be submitted to local authorities by the end of July.
A source familiar with the arrangement said the proposal would be comprehensive, covering aspects such as the number of staff needed and the reasons for setting up the new medical school.
HKUST president Professor Nancy Ip Yuk-yu earlier said the university aimed to establish a medical school before mid-2027 and was considering recruiting first-degree students for the American-style school with a stronger emphasis on research and development.
Polytechnic University said it wanted to launch a medical school and hospital in a new academic town near the border with mainland China, to cater for the 2.5 million residents expected to live in the area.
Baptist University is also exploring a plan to set up Hong Kong’s first school combining Western and traditional Chinese medicine in the Northern Metropolis.
3. What about expanding Hong Kong’s two medical schools?
Both the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) said they could boost first-year entrant numbers from the present figure of 295 each to about 400 to tackle the labour shortage.
Both universities said they had prepared for the expansion by training or recruiting more teaching staff and constructing new buildings.
Hot on the heels of HKUST’s announcement, HKU announced on Saturday that it was applying to launch a new graduate medical degree programme next year, which could start accepting applications as early as September.
The proposed four-year programme will provide an alternative pathway for individuals with other degrees or qualifications to pursue a medical career.
Hong Kong authorities have been trying to ease the doctor shortage by recruiting doctors trained overseas.
According to Health Bureau data, 61 non-locally trained doctors have applied to work in the city through a special programme, with 44 from the United Kingdom.
Public hospitals are expecting to recruit more than 250 non-locally trained doctors by the end of this year.
But former Hospital Authority chairman Anthony Wu Ting-yuk said that both schools had inadequate resources to support a larger intake despite working on expanding their capacity.
Wu, in a commentary piece, said the world’s top 10 medical schools on average admitted about 200 students per year, and the current intakes of about 295 students per school were already close to saturation.
He said adopting an American model targeting first-degree holders would not directly compete for students with the existing two medical schools, but could instead broaden the pool of applicants by attracting overseas graduates interested in pursuing a medical career.
He argued that relying on non-local doctors to practise in Hong Kong was not a sustainable solution in the long run amid a global shortage, and underscored the need to train more local practitioners as the city contended with an ageing population.
4. How has the government reacted to the proposals?
Undersecretary for Health Libby Lee Ha-yun emphasised that medical programmes must cater to local needs to meet standards set by the Medical Council of Hong Kong.
She cautioned that any programme “directly copied” from an overseas university was not likely to get recognised.
Lee also dismissed a proposal of Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Yau Ma Tei becoming a training site for doctors, saying it did not have resources such as laboratories and research facilities for a university operation.
5. What is the doctor-to-patient ratio in other places such as Singapore?
Other Asian economies such as Singapore have a doctor-to-patient ratio of 2.8, while both South Korea and Japan have a ratio of 2.6.
Singapore, which has a population of 5.92 million people, has three medical schools.
The city state’s youngest, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, established in 2010, is a collaboration between the Nanyang Technological University and Imperial College London.
Duke-NUS, a partnership between Duke University in the US and the National University of Singapore, is a graduate school, while the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine is the nation’s oldest and largest medical school.
Singapore’s medical schools have increased their combined intakes by about 60 per cent from around 320 in 2010 to 510 in 2019.
6. Will a third medical school help Hong Kong become a biomedical hub?
HKUST president Ip said she hoped doctors trained in its new medical school would be equipped with advanced skills such as basic engineering, use of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analysis.
This could pave the way for future generations of doctors to use robotics in carrying out surgery, AI to track virus mutation and engineering skills to develop new medical devices or instruments, she added.
Doctors equipped with these skills could also conduct clinical studies and bring returns close to eight times the amount of investment, which Ip said was crucial in shaping the city into a biomedical innovation hub.
HKU also announced a new office to facilitate collaboration among researchers, pharmaceutical companies, investors and government agencies to promote innovation and speed up commercialisation of research outcomes.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu outlined in his ambitions to boost the city’s health innovation and technology sector in his policy address last October, and unveiled a blueprint for Hong Kong’s own drug regulatory authority.
