More than 1,300 staff from the Hospital Authority and the Department of Health have applied for voluntary retirement under two schemes announced in the past year, according to Secretary for Health, Welfare & Food Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong.

In a written reply to Legislative Councillor Michael Mak, Dr Yeoh noted that the authority and the health department will closely monitor the manpower situation following the employees' departure. Their release will be staggered, he added, so as not to unduly affect healthcare provision.

"We will meet the service demand through service re-engineering, re-deployment of the serving staff and adopting alternative modes of service delivery," he said.

"Training will be provided for serving staff to facilitate their redeployment and job transition. We may also consider recruiting non-civil service contract staff to strengthen manpower support in specific areas, where necessary."

Closer collaboration sought with private sector

The two bodies will also explore ways to develop closer collaboration with the private healthcare sector and non-governmental organisations in the voluntary sector in case of an epidemic, as recommended by the SARS Expert Committee, Dr Yeoh added.

A total of 244 civil servants in the nursing and allied health grades working in the Department of Health and 389 civil servants in the medical, nursing and allied health grades working in the Hospital Authority have had their applications to retire under the Government's second Voluntary Retirement Scheme of the Government approved.

Under the Hospital Authority's Voluntary Early Retirement Programme for full-time non-civil service staff,  a total of 678 HA staff in the medical, nursing and allied health grades have had their applications approved.