The Education Bureau said that medical schools at Chinese University (CUHK) and the University of Hong Kong (HKU) would have 60 more training places in the next academic year.

In a paper submitted to the Legislative Council, the bureau said 50 places would be reserved for CUHK and HKU to introduce a new entry track for bachelor’s degree holders who want to pursue medicine as their second degree.

It added the remaining 10 places would be allocated to the universities’ existing medicine programmes.

The document also stated the number of first-year undergraduates for the eight publicly-funded universities would remain at 15,000 for each year in the 2025-28 triennium.

In response to questions from RTHK, CUHK said it would announce details for the “second degree entry track” in due course.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan announced in his budget address on Wednesday that the number of medical training places would increase to 650 in total in the 2025-26 academic year.

Medical sector lawmaker David Lam said the increase was in line with his expectations, noting it was part of the bureau's ongoing plan to raise medical student intake.

Lam said while there was a need for more doctors in view of an ageing population, medical schools cannot increase the number of training places drastically in the short run.

"We need to step up the teaching facilities in the universities and maintain a good number of teaching staff. Students also have to learn the clinical skills at the bedside on patients, which means we need enough hospitals to teach our students, and we need enough doctors, clinicians to mentor our students," he told RTHK.

"All these takes time to prepare. That's why the increase has to be gradual."