New doctors’ list fuels retraining debate

Plans to publish Hong Kong’s first directory of primary care doctors have sparked a debate over retraining.

The government’s Food and Health Bureau is preparing to put the directory on its website in early April. It aims to provide easy-to-read information about doctors’ qualifications and experiences to help patients choose practitioners according to their needs.

Primary care doctors – mainly GPs, but also paediatricians, and specialists in family medicine and elderly care – are not currently required to have any continuing medical education after qualifying. If the list is published, primary care doctors will have to take continuing education to remain on it.

Currently only specialists have to undertake continuing medical education.