The Hospital Authority is considering rewarding outstanding medics to motivate staff and enhance service quality at public hospitals, Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said.

Speaking in an interview with RTHK to mark the third year of Chief Executive John Lee's administration as well as the 28th anniversary of the SAR's establishment, Lo said the authority is exploring new ways to retain talent, in addition to cultivating local doctors and recruiting overseas and mainland professionals.

The health minister said it will review the rewards and punishment mechanism in its pay structure.

“Under the current system, all doctors, based on their years of service and professional qualifications, are receiving a fixed salary no matter whether they perform any surgeries or how they perform," he said.

"The incentive and penalty mechanism is not very clear at the moment.

“In the pay structure, we could introduce certain criteria so that proactive colleagues who provide high-quality services could advance faster in the pay structure, offering higher incentives.”

Lo said that by motivating medics, the authority can improve effectiveness as well as service quality.

The occurrence rate of medical blunders in Hong Kong is already low compared with many developed countries around the world, he said, but the authority will continue to improve its services.

Lo also said thanks to a capping mechanism, upcoming reforms relating to public hospital charges provide a “safety net” for patients who suffer from severe illnesses or are less well-off.

“We hope that, through the reform where financially capable and mild disease patients can pay more, our citizens don’t have to worry about falling into poverty because of severe illnesses or emergencies,” he said.

The health chief said he would continue to push ahead with medical reforms and develop Hong Kong into an international medical innovation hub in the two years remaining in his term of office.