The health minister expressed concerns Wednesday that the government plan to reform the medical watchdog had been politicised and would not win legislative passage as one more pro-democracy party backtracked its support.
Dr Ko Wing-man’s comments came after pan-democratic lawmakers U-turned one after the other and withdrew their support for the Medical Registration Bill, which is to see more lay members added to the Medical Council.
The Democratic Party said it would not support the bill, with lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan saying the party was considering either casting a vote of abstention or staging a walkout. He said the party would not vote against the government’s proposal as it still supported the bill’s objective.
Hong Kong’s largest doctor’s group calls for sit-in to protest proposal to reform medical watchdog.
The party backed an amendment proposed by Civic Party lawmaker Kwok Ka-ki that would make the four existing appointed doctor positions elected seats.
Both the Civic Party and Labour Party have said they would vote against the bill in its current form.
Ho expressed disappointment towards both the government – which had refused to incorporate amendments he said would improve the bill and address public concerns – and doctors groups, which he said “never gave a damn” for patients calling for a more effective mechanism within the council to deal with complaints.
Civic Party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit said his party would vote down the bill regardless of whether Kwok’s amendment was included.
Exit of Hong Kong medical group leader pushing to give doctors a bigger say on watchdog ‘highlights split within profession’
He said there was no reason to give Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying more power to appoint members to the regulatory body, citing how the city’s leader named Beijing-loyalist Professor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung to chair the governing council of the University of Hong Kong despite strong opposition from alumni and students.
Ko said he was “extremely worried” the bill, which was to resume its second and third reading at the Legislative Council on Wednesday afternoon, would not gain enough votes for passage.
“I am very sad and confused why an issue concerning the public interest is embroiled in politics,” he said.
The Medical Association has called on doctors as well as concerned members of the public to join a sit-in protest outside the Legislative Council on Wednesday afternoon to voice their opposition to the bill, which they feared would open the door for government intervention of the regulatory body.
During a phone interview on a radio programme earlier Wednesday, Ko said the amendment had only patients and the public interest in mind, adding politics should not seep into an issue involving a professional industry.
The government’s amendment would need half the lawmakers’ support to pass, and it would double the number of lay members on the 28-member council from four to eight, bringing the total to 32.
Three of the new members would be elected by patients’ organisations, while the fourth would be nominated by the Consumer Council. But the ultimate appointment would be made by the chief executive.
Ko said it would be disrespectful to such organisations if anyone felt they would be controlled by the government when nominating candidates. There was also no case of the government rejecting nominations in the past, he added, as 10 doctors on the body were also appointed.
Hong Kong Medical Council reform may be a bitter pill for doctors to swallow, but it’s a necessary remedy
His comments came after the association’s vice-chairman Alvin Chan Yee-shing described the government’s claim that reforming the council could speed up complaint hearings as a “lie”. The council now faced a backlog of over 900 pending complaints.
He did not believe the council could establish another Preliminary Investigation Committee as the government had hoped, saying it could not be done without simultaneously adding more doctors.
But Hong Kong Patients’ Voices chairman Alex Lam Chi-yau said the reform was a breakthrough, adding the new members would help monitor the council’s performance. He expressed confidence it would remain objective.
Peter Cheung Shung-tak, who waited for nine years for the council to rule that an obstetrician was guilty of professional misconduct in the death of his newborn baby, stated his support for the proposal, saying it could help eliminate perceptions the body lacked objectivity as doctors dominated its membership.
Source: South China Morning Post and Ming Pao