Hong Kong's hospital crisis of ageing doctors: rules changed to allow them to work past 60

A spate of retirements that would have caused an unprecedented crisis for the city's perennially understaffed public hospitals has been averted - at least temporarily - by a new scheme that allows doctors to stay on beyond the age of 60, the Hospital Authority said.

Some 60 of the 100 doctors who were due to retire in the next two years have agreed to stay on under the HK$570 million government-funded scheme. But some specialities will still be hit hard by the departures.

Among the 40 who have opted against taking part in the scheme is Dr Albert Yuen Wai-cheung, the city's only specialist sex-change surgeon.

With Yuen's departure, future gender reassignment surgery will move from Ruttonjee Hospital in Wan Chai, where he worked, to the plastic surgery department at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin, which has little experience of the complicated procedures.

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But others, such as veteran paediatrician Dr Li Chi-kwong, will stay on under the scheme, which grants doctors a new two-year contract. He will remain a consultant at Prince of Wales after his retirement date early next year.

"Doctors who reach the retirement age of 60 are very experienced and valuable," said Dr Theresa Li Tak-lai, head of human resources at the authority. "They have are very knowledgable and have a lot to pass on to the new doctors."