Hong Kong’s Secretary for Health, Lo Chung-mau, publicly addressed concerns regarding the recruitment of nursing staff within the city’s public hospital system. In response to claims that authorities are favoring mainland Chinese candidates over local applicants, Lo stated that locally trained professionals continue to have excellent employment prospects.

To support his position, Lo provided data from the Hospital Authority, noting that 95 percent of all local applicants for nursing positions were hired over the past year. When focusing specifically on applicants with registered nurse qualifications, that hiring rate increased to 99 percent. The minister emphasized that these figures demonstrate the authority's commitment to local talent, even as the healthcare system faces ongoing challenges in staffing public hospitals.

While the Hospital Authority has been looking to external sources to fill critical shortages, Lo’s comments were aimed at quelling public anxiety that local nursing graduates might be sidelined. The minister did not provide a direct breakdown of how many mainland nurses have been hired in comparison to the total number of vacancies, but he maintained that the recruitment of non-local staff is intended to supplement, rather than replace, the local workforce. The discussion highlights the tension between the need to address chronic staffing shortages in public medical facilities and the desire to protect the job market for locally trained healthcare workers.