A retired Hong Kong healthcare worker has rejected claims that his concerns about jobs for locally trained nurses were orchestrated by a union, saying he was speaking as a parent and former healthcare worker about problems he believes graduates are facing in the job market.
The man, identified by the surname Kwok, made the comments during a radio interview on September 29 after Executive Council member Tommy Cheung Yu yan questioned whether his earlier appearance on a radio programme represented an organised labour campaign.
The dispute began when Kwok called into a programme featuring Chief Executive John Lee Ka chiu and raised concerns about the employment prospects of Hong Kong nursing graduates amid the recruitment of nurses trained outside the city.
Cheung later told local media that Hong Kong continued to face a shortage of medical staff and questioned whether Kwok was genuinely an ordinary member of the public. He described him as a union representative presenting himself as an ordinary citizen.
Kwok strongly rejected that suggestion.
Retired worker denies union affiliation
Speaking on radio, Kwok said he had never been a member, officer or representative of a healthcare union. He said his comments were motivated by concerns about the employment prospects of young nurses rather than any campaign by a labour organisation.
He also objected strongly to the language used to describe him.
Kwok argued that suggesting someone was merely pretending to be an ordinary citizen was deeply insulting because it dismissed the legitimacy of his concerns and reduced an individual member of the public to a political label.
He said he was particularly angry that the discussion had shifted away from the employment issue and towards speculation about his background.
Kwok also sought to distance his comments from any criticism of nurses from mainland China.
He said Hong Kong residents should remember the assistance provided by mainland medical teams during the COVID 19 pandemic and expressed respect for mainland healthcare professionals working in the city.
Kwok described himself as a traditional patriot and a supporter of the establishment. He said that if anything he had previously said had caused mainland colleagues in Hong Kong to feel insulted, he would apologise to them.
His argument, however, was that respect for mainland healthcare workers should not prevent Hong Kong residents from asking questions about employment opportunities for locally trained graduates.
Dispute centres on nursing jobs
The disagreement comes as the government and Hospital Authority have offered different pieces of information about the nursing labour market.
Officials have argued that Hong Kong continues to need nurses and that the public hospital system is recruiting. At the same time, concerns have emerged over whether the number of available positions matches the number of newly qualified nurses seeking work.
The Hospital Authority said its first recruitment round for the latest group of nursing graduates received about 3,000 applications and resulted in approximately 2,200 offers. The authority has now entered a second recruitment phase, which allows graduates who were unsuccessful in the first round to apply again. Experienced nurses can also apply during this stage.
The figures provide an important part of the official picture, but they do not necessarily answer the wider question raised by Kwok: whether every locally trained graduate who wants to work as a nurse can find a suitable position.
Hospital Authority officials have made clear that the public hospital system is not intended to employ every nursing graduate in Hong Kong.
Chief Manager of Nursing Danny Tong Wah kun said the annual pool of nursing graduates supplies the wider healthcare sector, including private hospitals, elderly care facilities, rehabilitation services and other organisations. Some graduates also choose not to enter the profession immediately or pursue other areas of healthcare.
That distinction has become central to the dispute.
Daughter’s experience fuels concern
For Kwok, the issue is not theoretical.
He said his daughter recently completed a five year programme in psychiatric nursing but has struggled to secure employment despite completing local professional training.
According to Kwok, she applied to the Hospital Authority and received only a short video interview before communication stopped.
She then approached non governmental organisations and private care homes. He said several organisations rejected her because she did not have previous professional experience.
That experience left him questioning how newly qualified nurses are expected to obtain the experience employers demand if organisations are reluctant to hire people at the beginning of their careers.
Kwok also raised concerns about salaries in parts of the non governmental sector. He claimed that some organisations were offering registered nurses with more than 30 years of experience monthly salaries of around HK$28,000.
He argued that if experienced nurses can be offered relatively modest salaries, employers may have little financial incentive to recruit inexperienced graduates and train them from the beginning.
These claims are Kwok’s account of the employment situation and have not been independently established by the figures released by the Hospital Authority.
Government figures paint a different picture
The government has pointed to recruitment data to challenge suggestions that nursing graduates are being left without employment.
Officials previously said that about 4,000 nurses graduated in the previous year, with roughly 3,500 becoming registered or enrolled nurses. About 2,500 applied for positions with the Hospital Authority.
On September 29, the Hospital Authority provided more recent figures for the current recruitment cycle. It said about 3,000 newly graduated nurses applied in the first round and approximately 2,200 had received offers.
The authority has also stressed that its workforce has grown substantially over the past decade. Government figures cited by officials show the number of full time nurses in the public hospital system increased from roughly 24,000 at the end of the 2015 to 2016 financial year to almost 29,000 by the end of 2025 to 2026.
At the same time, the Hospital Authority said nurse turnover has fallen from a previous high of 10.9 percent to 5.4 percent. Officials have linked the reduction to measures aimed at retaining staff.
The authority also continues to report demand for nurses as major hospital expansion projects progress.
Second recruitment round gives graduates another chance
Tong said the Hospital Authority does not simply close the door on graduates who fail to secure an offer during the first round.
The second recruitment phase allows candidates who performed poorly during their first interview to submit another application. The process is also open to nurses with previous professional experience.
That approach means the recruitment process is not limited to one assessment.
Tong also explained why the authority does not make enough offers to employ every nursing graduate in the city.
The annual number of graduates is intended to supply the entire healthcare market rather than the public hospital system alone. Graduates can seek employment in private hospitals, residential care homes, rehabilitation services and other healthcare organisations.
Government figures also show that not every nursing graduate applies to the Hospital Authority. In the previous year, about 2,500 graduates applied for Hospital Authority positions out of approximately 3,500 people who became registered or enrolled nurses.
That means the number of graduates and the number of public sector vacancies cannot be compared as though every graduate were competing for a Hospital Authority position.
A wider question about workforce planning
The disagreement nevertheless raises a broader issue about how Hong Kong plans the number of nurses it trains and the jobs available to them after graduation.
Kwok argued that universities and training institutions should have clearer information about future workforce requirements before students commit to years of professional study.
His concern is particularly focused on students who complete publicly supported training only to encounter difficulties entering the profession.
The Hospital Authority, meanwhile, maintains that it assesses workforce needs before its annual recruitment exercises and adjusts recruitment according to expected demand and service development. Officials have also pointed to upcoming hospital projects that are expected to increase demand for nursing staff.
The two sides are therefore looking at different parts of the same system.
For the authority, the figures show continuing recruitment, a growing nursing workforce and another opportunity for unsuccessful graduates to apply.
For Kwok, the experience of graduates struggling to secure their first job raises questions about whether workforce planning is keeping pace with the number of people being trained.
The argument is unlikely to be settled by one recruitment round or one set of statistics. What is clear is that the debate has moved beyond the accusation of union involvement and back to the issue that triggered the controversy: whether Hong Kong's nursing education system, public hospitals and wider healthcare market are providing a realistic path from graduation into employment.
As the Hospital Authority continues its second recruitment phase, graduates who were unsuccessful in the first round now have another opportunity to apply. The outcome of that process will provide a more concrete indication of how many newly trained nurses remain without positions after completing their professional education.
Should Hong Kong publish clearer annual figures showing how many locally trained nursing graduates seek work, receive offers and remain unemployed after each recruitment cycle?