A consultant doctor, surnamed Ku
Hundreds of public doctors are staging a mass sit-in at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to demand an extra 3 percent pay rise in line with top civil servants.
The chairman of the Hospital Authority John Leong, and chief executive Leung Pak-yin, are also present to talk to them and answer their questions.
The authority has rejected the doctors' request saying their pay is not pegged to that of civil servants.
But the Public Doctors Association criticised the authority for damaging their established pay adjustment mechanism.
One of those at the protest, a consultant doctor surnamed Ku, warned that it might be more difficult for the authority to retain staff, and that might affect public healthcare services in the long run.
The former chairman of the Hospital Authority, Anthony Wu, also appeared to back the doctors. He said there used to be a tacit agreement over doctors’ pay, even though it is not pegged to that of civil servants.
Wu said the extra 3 percent pay rise the doctors are demanding would cost the authority HK$200 million a year. He said this is a small sum to the authority, as its recurrent expenditure is more than HK$50 billion annually.
Earlier the organiser of the sit-in promised that the action would not affect medical services.
Speaking on a radio programme, Pierre Chan, President of the Public Doctors' Association, said most of the participating doctors were off-duty.
The chairman of the Hospital Authority John Leong, and chief executive Leung Pak-yin, are also present to talk to them and answer their questions.
The authority has rejected the doctors' request saying their pay is not pegged to that of civil servants.
But the Public Doctors Association criticised the authority for damaging their established pay adjustment mechanism.
One of those at the protest, a consultant doctor surnamed Ku, warned that it might be more difficult for the authority to retain staff, and that might affect public healthcare services in the long run.
The former chairman of the Hospital Authority, Anthony Wu, also appeared to back the doctors. He said there used to be a tacit agreement over doctors’ pay, even though it is not pegged to that of civil servants.
Wu said the extra 3 percent pay rise the doctors are demanding would cost the authority HK$200 million a year. He said this is a small sum to the authority, as its recurrent expenditure is more than HK$50 billion annually.
Earlier the organiser of the sit-in promised that the action would not affect medical services.
Speaking on a radio programme, Pierre Chan, President of the Public Doctors' Association, said most of the participating doctors were off-duty.
http://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1218693-20151021.htm
