Abstract:
A recent incident in which a lady died from a blood transfusion therapy given in a beauty centre has prompted us to reflect on the current regulation of medical practitioners in Hong Kong. Based on a comparison with the current regulation in the United Kingdom and Singapore (both of which have a similar healthcare system to ours), we propose reform in Hong Kong in respect of the constitution of regulators, revalidation of medical professionals, and tackling concerns about medical professionals. We conduct a cross-sectional telephone survey amongst members of the general public of Hong Kong to collect their opinion on our proposed reform. As expected, the majority of the respondents supported all our proposed changes. Accordingly, we strongly call for a change with a view to strengthening the current regulatory framework in order to restore confidence from the public.

Speaker(s):
Dr TK Chan, MBCHB(CUHK), MRCS (England, Edinburgh), LLM(Edinburgh)

Dr TK Chan graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2005 and qualified as a medical practitioner in Hong Kong in 2006. He completed his basic surgical training and obtained his membership from the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and Edinburgh in 2009 and 2010 respectively. His fascination with surgical anatomy brought him to the department of anatomy as a teacher and his interest in medical law and ethics saw him complete the masters of law degree from the University of Edinburgh in 2012. He is keen on critically reviewing current law and ethics from the perspectives of patients.