Hong Kong set to recruit nurses from overseas — report

Prospective overseas Filipino workers, take note: Hong Kong will be recruiting nurses as a hospital expands its operations there, news site The Standard reported on Tuesday. The report quoted Hong Kong’s Secretary for Food and Health Chow Yat-ngok as saying that “no timetable for hiring of overseas nurses was given." Chow’s announcement came after the ground-breaking of the 23-story building expansion of the Tsuen Wan Adventist Hospital. The development, which is expected to be completed by 2014, will result in an increase in hospital beds to 450, from 138. According to Association of Hong Kong Nursing Staff vice chair Eva Yeung Yee-man, there is a shortage of nurses in Hong Kong, admitting that the new recruits are “not enough to fill the shortage." She said the “high-pressure nature of [nursing] job and more favorable working conditions in other [firms] are some of the reasons for the high turnover." Hong Kong Hospital Authority chair Anthony Wu Ting-yuk said they will “consider opening extra nursing schools depending on the actual conditions." Wu added an additional 600 nurses are in service each year after new nursing schools opened. — JE, GMA News