Hong Kong Health Minister Warns Nurse Job Claims Could Hurt Recruitment

Hong Kong’s health minister has cautioned that inaccurate remarks about nurses’ job prospects could hurt future recruitment and leave the city to face the consequences.

Warning over recruitment impact

Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said he did not want recent comments, including claims that “[nursing] graduation equals unemployment”, to dampen younger people’s interest in entering the nursing profession.

Lo said such comments could discourage “new blood” from joining the sector, which he warned would be at the city’s expense.

His remarks came amid a heated debate over the employment prospects of nurses in Hong Kong.

‘Training nurses takes time’

Lo stressed that the workforce cannot be expanded immediately, saying: “Training nurses takes time, and [the number of nurses] cannot be increased overnight.”

He added that if “certain inaccurate statements” affected recruitment next year or in the period ahead, “we will have to bear the negative consequences.”

The minister’s warning centred on the risk that overstated concerns about graduate unemployment could make the nursing profession less attractive to the younger generation.

Lo said the city would need to “bear the consequences” of exaggerating concerns over nurses’ employment prospects.

Source: South China Morning Post