Hong Kong has the world's top dental schools, but there are only 2,817 dentists in total, with an average of 2,702 dentists per dentist, lagging behind the 10,000:5 ratio of population to dentists in the average industrialized country. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the loss of manpower, the shortage of dental services has become more serious.
As at 1.9.2023, the actual number of dental grades in the Department of Health was 276 and the vacancy rate was 25.4%. The backlog of dental check-up cases due to the epidemic has lengthened the waiting time for follow-up dental visits for civil servants from 12 months to 24 months. The Secretary for Health, Lo Chung-mau, said that it was not uncommon for some dental clinics to fail to reopen due to the severe manpower loss, and the shortage of dentists was projected to continue until 2035.
Chan pointed out that Hong Kong's dental graduates have narrow employment channels. (Click on news photos)
Legislative Council member Chan Hok-fung said in an interview with Dian News that the School of Dentistry of the University of Hong Kong ranks second in the world in the university rankings, and the standard of graduates is high, but the employment channels after graduation are narrow. Most dental graduates choose to open a private practice, but they often give it up because they have just graduated and cannot afford to pay the million-dollar cost, resulting in a shortage of dentists in the market. If the number of dentists increases, there will be room for a lower consultation fee to bring about a better experience.
At present, among the 39 government dental clinics, which mainly provide services to civil servants and their families, only 11 of them can provide emergency dental services for pain relief and tooth extraction to the public. In fact, public services are in short supply and unevenly distributed, and there is often a need for cross-district dental care at the grassroots level: Hong Kong Island, with a population of 1.22 million, has only one dental clinic providing street services, while Kowloon, with 2.27 million people, has only two in Kwun Tong and Hung Hom. In addition, most clinics are only open to the public for one to two days a week in the morning session, with 32 to 84 tickets distributed each time, so it is no wonder that a large number of members of the public, including the elderly, have to wait all night.
In recent years, the Government has increased the number of students admitted to the Faculty of Dentistry and introduced non-locally trained dentists to address the manpower shortage. (Click on news photos)
Therefore, Chan suggested improving the employment channels for dental graduates, allowing non-profit charities (NGOs) and some social welfare organizations to recruit a large number of dentists to serve the grassroots, which can not only improve the shortage of dentists in public hospitals, but also help fledgling dental graduates save their first pot of gold in life, increase the number of clinics in the market in the future, and reduce prices.
In order to increase the amount of services, it is necessary to walk on multiple legs, and Chen Xuefeng suggested that talent training should be increased from the source of education. The Government has taken the initiative to increase the number of places in the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) programme at the University of Hong Kong from 50 in the 2008/09 academic year to 90 in the 2022/23 academic year. Secondly, the Dental Graduate School will increase the number of places by 10 to train more dental specialists.
Given the time required to train local dentists, which takes six years to complete, and the expansion of both the Faculty of Dentistry of HKU and its teaching hospital, the Philip Dental Hospital, are facing practical constraints, the Government cannot solve the manpower problem by increasing the number of local training places alone in the short term.
Chan suggested hiring more overseas dentists to expand Hong Kong's talent pool. (Photo by Information Services Department)
Chan Kin-keung, a veteran dentist and former President of the Hong Kong Dental Association and a member of the Central and Western District Council, suggested that non-local dentists could be invited and the framework for recognition of qualifications could be simplified to achieve reinforcement as soon as possible. In fact, non-locally trained dentists used to be an important source of dental manpower in Hong Kong. Prior to 1990, dentists were able to register and practise in Hong Kong as long as they held a number of recognised qualifications from overseas countries, when more than half of the newly registered dentists in Hong Kong were non-locally trained. Past figures show that about 10 to 30 people pass each year, which is not enough to meet the needs of Hong Kong society. Chan therefore considers it worthwhile to explore additional ways to introduce non-locally trained dentists, with particular emphasis on addressing the shortage of dentists in the public sector.
Against this background, the Government also plans to amend the Dentists Registration Ordinance To address the manpower shortage, including (1) providing new avenues to introduce qualified non-locally trained dentists to practise and provide services in specified institutions through limited registration and special registration, thereby alleviating the shortage of dentists, and (2) introducing a provisional registration mechanism to meet the requirement that local dental graduates and non-locally trained dentists who have passed the licensing examination undergo a one-year Xi or assessment period to allow them to accumulate clinical experience before they are formally registered, in line with doctors' practice.
Mr Lo said there was still no intention of integrating dentistry into the public healthcare system. (Click on news photos)
At the same time, Lo pointed out that locally trained healthcare workers will continue to be the cornerstone of Hong Kong's healthcare workforce. It is only when there is sufficient manpower that the price of private dentists will fall.
However, given the high cost, there is still no intention of integrating dentistry into the public healthcare system. Mr Lo reiterated that the dental policy emphasises that "prevention is better than cure" and encourages the public to prevent dental problems rather than investing heavily in providing free dental services. Chan encouraged the elderly to pay attention to dental care as early as possible, "It's like a car can be repaired regularly, so you don't have to wait for it to break down or even crash." ”
(Reported by reporter Zhou Tingqian)