An advocacy group for patients' rights on Thursday welcomed a government proposal to allow non-locally trained nurses to work in Hong Kong without taking a licensing exam, but said authorities must make sure they don’t quickly leave the public healthcare system.

Alex Lam, from Hong Kong Patients’ Voices, made the remarks a day after the government submitted a paper to Legco saying it hopes to introduce a special registration pathway for qualified nurses who trained outside Hong Kong to work for the Department of Health or Hospital Authority, even if they are not permanent residents.

Lam noted that under the proposal, after working in Hong Kong for one year the nurses would get full registration, warning this may encourage them to move to the private sector.

“If the new policy is to allow nurses to go away after one year, this is contradicting the idea that we want them to come here, to stay longer in the public sector, but not let them go away after one year,” he said.

Lam said Hong Kong's shortage of nurses is so acute that some services are being cancelled, so the scheme would not take jobs away from locals.

Unionist lawmaker Bill Tang welcomed the proposal, saying the public medical sector is facing a “difficult” manpower shortage.

However, the Federation of Trade Unions lawmaker said authorities should still prioritise training local nurses.

Tang also said medical institutions in Hong Kong are used to using English and the language barrier may deter mainland nurses from the scheme.