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Health
about 470 doctors were recruited for specialist training. Around 300 doctors were awarded specialist qualifications by the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine in 2020.
Dentists
HKU offers degree courses in dentistry, admitting 78 students to its bachelor's degree programme in 2020. Non-locally trained dental graduates may apply for registration to practise in Hong Kong after passing the Dental Council of Hong Kong's licensing examination, but the 2020 examinations were cancelled because of COVID-19.
Chinese Medicine Practitioners
Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), CUHK and HKU offer full-time undergraduate degree courses in Chinese medicine. In 2020, 79 full-time local bachelor's degree graduates who passed the licensing examination were registered as Chinese medicine practitioners.
The 18 Chinese Medicine Clinics cum Training and Research Centres launched a training programme for Chinese medicine practitioner trainees in March to assist them in developing a solid clinical foundation and enhance professional standards. As at end-2020, there were 216 training places, including 72 places for the first year of training.
Allied Health Professionals
Caritas Institute of Higher Education (CIHE), Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) and Tung Wah College (TWC) offer degree programmes for allied health professionals. In 2020, PolyU admitted 147, 111, 102, 55 and 48 students to its publicly funded degree programmes in physiotherapy, radiography, occupational therapy, medical laboratory science and optometry respectively. TWC admitted 43, 13, 50 and 50 students respectively to its self-financing degree programmes in medical laboratory science, radiation therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy, the last of which is undergoing professional accreditation while the other three have been accredited. Students of all of TWC's four self-financing degree programmes receive government subsidies under the Study Subsidy Scheme for Designated Professions/Sectors. In September, CIHE and OUHK started to run self-financing degree programmes in physiotherapy, and admitted 51 and 46 students respectively.
The Hospital Authority's Institute of Advanced Allied Health Studies devises structured long-term training plans for allied health staff members and runs courses on specialist and multidisciplinary training, and clinical and personal development. These include three years of in-service training for new recruits of allied health grades. In 2020, the institute offered 63 training courses and 22 overseas scholarships.
Nurses
CIHE, CUHK, HKBU, HKU, OUHK, PolyU and TWC provide pre-registration nursing training. They recruited 2,151 students into their nursing degree programmes in 2020. CUHK and PolyU enrolled another 127 students in their Master's Degree of Nursing programmes.
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