In accordance with the Medical Registration Ordinance, the Registrar of Medical Practitioners (i.e. the Director of Health) announced today (June 28) the fourth batch of 25 medical qualifications (see Annex 1) recognised by the Special Registration Committee (SRC).
The list of the fourth batch of recognised medical qualifications will be gazetted on June 30 and take effect on the same day. It will be submitted to the Legislative Council for negative vetting on July 5. Together with the first three batches of medical qualifications recognised as announced last year (see Annex 2), the SRC has so far recommended a total of 100 medical qualifications for recognition. The SRC is now pressing ahead with the assessment of other non-local medical programmes that fulfil the stipulated criteria in order to determine the next batch of recognised medical qualifications.
The Medical Registration (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 came into effect upon gazettal on October 29, 2021. Non-locally trained doctors who possess recognised medical qualifications, subject to their fulfilment of certain criteria, may apply for special registration to practise in the public healthcare institutions in Hong Kong (i.e. the Hospital Authority, the Department of Health, the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong). After serving for a certain period, obtaining recognised specialist qualifications and passing the assessment, they will be granted full registration to practise in Hong Kong. For non-locally trained medical graduates who possess recognised medical qualifications but have yet to undergo internship outside Hong Kong, subject to their fulfilment of the relevant criteria, they may take the Licensing Examination of the Medical Council of Hong Kong (MCHK) in order to apply for special registration to practise in the public healthcare institutions in Hong Kong. They may also obtain full registration after meeting the requirements applicable to all special registration doctors.
The SRC was established under the MCHK in November 2021 to determine the list of recognised medical qualifications upon reviewing the programmes offered by non-local medical schools with quality comparable to those provided by the two medical schools in Hong Kong. The list is submitted to the Registrar of Medical Practitioners for promulgation.
When determining the list of recognised medical qualifications, the SRC will consider and recommend a medical qualification that fulfils the following criteria:
(a) that is at the level of degree or higher;
(b) that is awarded by a body broadly comparable to any local university awarding medical qualifications in terms of international rankings; and
(c) that is broadly comparable to the medical qualifications awarded by any local university in terms of:
(i) the curriculum of the programmes leading to the medical qualifications;
(ii) the medium of instruction of the programmes; and
(iii) any other aspects the SRC considers appropriate.
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