Hong Kong physiotherapists face mounting job competition as budget cuts collide with graduate surge
SCMP · 1 SOURCESabout 1 hour ago2 MIN
Summary
Hong Kong physiotherapy graduates are confronting a severe job crunch as healthcare budget cuts reduce hiring capacity while the number of new practitioners entering the market reaches unprecedented levels. Industry representatives report that 60 applicants have competed for a single position at an elderly care facility, with the situation expected to worsen as more institutions increase their student intakes.
Key Points
- The Hong Kong Physiotherapy Association president Alexander Woo Chuen-hau revealed that 60 candidates competed for one position at a remote elderly care facility
- Polytechnic University saw the proportion of Band A applicants to its physiotherapy programme fall by approximately 9 percentage points from the previous year
- The government announced recurrent public expenditure cuts of 1 to 2 percent for 2025-26, to be extended through 2027-28, limiting healthcare hiring
- Four institutions now offer physiotherapy programmes, producing 368 graduates this year compared to 198 annually from PolyU alone previously
- Three newer institutions plan to increase first-year undergraduate intake to 175 each starting September, while 200-300 foreign-trained physiotherapists return annually
Why It Matters
The convergence of rising graduate numbers and constrained public healthcare budgets threatens to leave hundreds of qualified physiotherapists without positions, potentially driving talent overseas and undermining care quality for Hong Kong's ageing population .
The convergence of rising graduate numbers and constrained public healthcare budgets threatens to leave hundreds of qualified physiotherapists without positions, potentially driving talent overseas and undermining care quality for Hong Kong's ageing population .