On Friday's Backchat, we're talking about the Audit Commission's latest report on public dental services.

The auditor found that the daily number of appointment quotas at public dental clinics dropped by 50 percent from 40,322 in 2018-19 to 20,337 in the 2022-23 financial year.


Some citizens were reported to have queued for up to seven hours overnight in order to secure a spot at one of the territory's 11 government dental clinics, prompting the watchdog to request health authorities to fine-tune their allocation mechanism. Grassroots organisations have called on the government to strengthen collaboration with the private sector, while hoping that dentists trained overseas can be given easier access to local practices.


What can we do to attract more dentists? Should public practice be a requirement for every fresh graduate?


After 9:45, we'll be looking into Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Miss Lieser" painting, which was sold to a Hong Kong buyer for US$32mn despite questions over the artefact's past ownership.


9:05am-9:45am: Audit's report on dental services

9:05am-9:15am: Dr David Lam, Lawmaker, Medical and Health Services functional constituency
9:05am-9:30am: Ivan Lin, Community Organiser, The Society for Community Organisation (SoCO)
9:30am-9:45am: Alex Lam, Chairman of Hong Kong Patients’ Voices


9:45am-10:00am: Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Miss Lieser" painting sold to HK buyer

9:45am-10:00am: Ingrid Chen, Founder of FindArt