Hong Kong ombudsman slams Medical Council’s ‘excessively long’ complaints system

Hong Kong’s ombudsman has found that the Medical Council’s complaint-handling processes are excessively lengthy and plagued by a persistent backlog of cases, urging the watchdog and authorities to hasten procedures to uphold public confidence.

The Office of the Ombudsman on Thursday released its investigation findings into the effectiveness of administrative support provided by the secretariat under the Department of Health for the council’s complaint handling and the government’s regulatory role.

The findings showed that the council completed 263 inquiry cases between 2020 and 2025, averaging 44 a year.

More than 75 per cent of the cases were completed within five years, while the handling of 11 cases, or 4 per cent of the total, took between 10 and 15 years.

The council had a backlog of 895 complaint cases as of last December, and most of them had been outstanding for less than two years from the date they were received, while some had been pending for long periods, according to the office.

“During our investigation into the secretariat under the Department of Health’s establishment, the office also found systemic issues and inadequacies in the management and operation of the Medical Council of Hong Kong’s complaint-handling and monitoring mechanism,” Ombudsman Jack Chan Jick-chi said.