Policy Address

Healthcare Manpower Supply and Training

146. To alleviate the shortage of dentists and nurses, the Government will introduce amendment bills to the Dentists Registration Ordinance and the Nurses Registration Ordinance by mid-2024 to provide new pathways for admission of qualified non-locally trained dentists and nurses for serving in specified institutions under the premise that the professional standards and patients' welfare are maintained. Furthermore, we will, starting from the 2023/24 academic year, gradually increase the training places of ancillary dental workers and provide tuition sponsorship to attract more people to join the industry. The Government will also explore amending the Supplementary Medical Professions Ordinance to provide new pathways for admitting qualified non-locally trained supplementary medical professionals to serve in the HA and the Department of Health.

147. We will strengthen the two-way training and exchange of healthcare talents between Hong Kong and the Mainland, while continuing to take forward the "Hospital Authority Healthcare Talents Visiting Programme". Building upon the successful experience of the first phase of exchanges with the Guangdong Province recently, we will take forward talent exchanges with other Mainland regions/cities, such as Shanghai, to promote continuous mutual learning and clinical exchange between different clinical healthcare professionals from the two places, including doctors, nurses and Chinese medicine practitioners, etc.