Hong Kong Health Bureau dismisses nurse unemployment claims, points to 3,000 vacant public healthcare positions

HONG KONG — The Hong Kong Health Bureau has refuted viral social media claims alleging that the public healthcare system is sidelining local nursing graduates to favor non-locally trained labor from mainland China for lower pay.

Addressing the public, Secretary for Health Professor Lo Chung-Mau clarified that the public healthcare sector is facing a severe shortage of nursing staff rather than facing a surplus of labor. Official data from the Hospital Authority shows that public institutions actively maintain a deficit of roughly 3,000 open nursing positions.

The figures show that the Hospital Authority successfully hired 95% of all local applicants over the past year. For candidates holding fully registered local nursing qualifications, the acceptance rate climbed to 99%, with minor non-hires stemming exclusively from interview performance or technical credential evaluations rather than arbitrary quotas.

Addressing public concerns raised by residents during a recent radio broadcast, officials explained that any perceived gap between graduation numbers and public hires stems from personal career choice. While more than 4,000 students graduated with nursing degrees last year with roughly 3,500 registering as professional nurses-only 2,500 applied for vacancies within the public healthcare system. Secretary Lo noted that nearly 40% of graduates opt out of public hospital roles due to demanding overnight shifts, with many choosing to enter private healthcare sectors voluntarily instead.

Furthermore, authorities stressed that non-locally trained personnel from outside Hong Kong account for a minuscule fraction of the workforce. Out of more than 75,000 active nurses in the city, fewer than 60 are non-locally trained, and only 29 originate from mainland China—deployed strictly for specialized technical exchange rather than displacing local entry-level staff.

Looking to the future, official long-range workforce projections highlighted that Hong Kong’s public medical sector faces systemic structural strain. A study conducted by the University of Hong Kong estimates that public hospitals will encounter a shortfall of 3,020 general nurses by 2030, a structural deficit projected to widen to 4,480 by 2040 as the city’s population rapidly ages. To bridge this long-term gap, the government is rolling out aggressive retention measures, including extending the frontline retirement age to 65 and expanding clinical mentorship initiatives. Additionally, while recent legal amendments to the Nurses Registration Ordinance allow a controlled path for qualified non-local nurses to practice full-time in public institutions, authorities reaffirmed that local graduates remain the prioritized baseline of the medical infrastructure.

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