The Hospital Authority on Thursday said it would propose raising fees at accident and emergency services at public hospitals to narrow the price differential between public and private hospitals.

Speaking to reporters, the authority's chairman Henry Fan described many cases currently treated at A&Es as “petty”, and said many people were abusing the cheap A&E fees.

"We hope that by adjusting the fees correspondingly to narrow the gap between private doctors and A&Es, these patients would turn to private doctors instead of crowding A&Es, thereby allowing more opportunities for those in urgent need to wait for a shorter time," he said.

"That is the logic. Now whether or not it would work, we shall see, and whether or not the government would agree."

Fan said the Health Secretary, Lo Chung-mau, would make a decision by the end of the year.

Separately, Fan also noted a significant improvement in retaining doctors at public hospitals, saying there had been a net growth of 236 doctors and 227 nurses over the past 12 months.

He added that so far 150 doctors and 537 nurses have rejoined the healthcare system under the authority's retirement re-engagement programme.

In terms of seeking medical professionals from overseas, he said officials from the authority would visit London and Manchester next month and consider holding online sessions to attract Australian and Canadian doctors to work in Hong Kong.

He said there would be an estimated 250 non-locally trained doctors working in Hong Kong by the end of this year, with 200 hired for long-term positions.

Fan said they would carry out the same tasks as those locally trained.

"I can assure you that each and every one of them would first have to be registered by the Medical Council either under limited registration or under special registration, thereby qualifying them as full-fledged practising doctors in Hong Kong, and therefore their roles would not be differentiated from local doctors," he said.