ENG-2007 — Page 224

176 Health

Apart from endeavouring to provide the community with public health care services, the Hospital Authority also undertakes training of specialists. Each year, the majority of medical graduates of the two local universities are offered appointment to the Hospital Authority and receive specialist training while working in the HA. During the year, over 300 medical graduates were offered appointment to the Hospital Authority and over 2 000 doctors received specialist training there. Generally, doctors are required to undergo about seven years of training before acquiring specialist. qualification. To attract more medical graduates to join the public healthcare sector and receive specialist training, the Hospital Authority introduced a new career structure for doctors in 2007 to improve the remuneration package of those under training and to ensure they have sufficient time to complete their training. They will be employed as specialists on permanent terms after they have acquired specialist qualification.

Dentists

Training in dentistry is available at the University of Hong Kong, which enrolled 51 dental students in 2007. During the year, nine candidates who completed their dental training outside Hong Kong passed the licensing examination conducted by the Dental Council of Hong Kong.

Chinese Medicine Practitioners

Three local universities offer full-time undergraduate degree courses in Chinese medicine. In 2007, 103 full-time local Chinese medicine bachelor's degree graduates who passed the licensing examination were registered as Chinese medicine practitioners.

Allied Health Professionals

For allied health professionals, degree programmes in the fields of medical laboratory science, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, optometry and radiography were offered by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which enrolled 35, 63, 45, 35 and 36 students respectively in 2007.

To address the increasing demand for services and to develop new services, the Hospital Authority established the Institute of Advanced Allied Health Studies in July 2007 to provide systematic, continuous training for professionals of various allied health grades to upgrade the overall service standards. Courses offered by the institute cover areas such as clinical knowledge, skills, management and personal development, and include a three-year training course provided for new recruits of allied health services. About 120 new recruits completed the course in 2007.

Nurses

The University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University provide basic Registered Nurses training. The three universities recruited 596 nursing students into their four-year general nursing degree programmes in 2007, while the Hong Kong Polytechnic University enrolled 120 nursing students into its three-year higher diploma nursing programme. In addition, the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital Limited and St Teresa's Hospital provide