Medical Council reform is a must to prevent the regulatory body from collapsing, says chairman Joseph Lau Wan-yee.

"In a few years, the number of complaints piling up could reach more than 1,000 or even 1,500," he said yesterday.

"Can the public tolerate this? If we can take this, then it's fine to pull the bill down," Lau said.

This came after the second reading of the Medical Registration (Amendment) 2016 bill was adjourned last Wednesday due to lack of a quorum in the Legislative Council session.

More than 450 doctors and medical students staged a sit-in protest outside the Legco complex as they were angry that officials were rushing through the bill.

The Legco debate will resume on Wednesday and most pan-democrats have said they will vote it down.

"I hope the lawmakers will take into consideration justice for the victims of the blunders when they vote on Wednesday or at least stay in the chamber," said Pang Hung-cheung, community organizer of the Society for Community Organization, who led a protest with the patients' rights group to rally support for the bill last week.

Doctors fear the government will tighten control over the profession and lower the requirements for doctors who are not locally trained to practice here.

Apart from adding four more chief executive-appointed lay members to the council, another controversy lies in the government's suggestion to extend the valid period of limited registration for non-locally trained doctors from not more than one year to not more than three years.

Medical sector lawmaker Leung Ka-lau suggested the government separate voting for each amendment instead of bundling them, as the sector in fact agrees with most of them.

But Legco president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing ruled out the possibility as the bill has already entered the second- reading stage.

Medical Association vice-president Alvin Chan Yee-shing stressed that the doctors are not against having more lay members, but there should also be more doctors on the body to shorten the process. Currently, the Medical Registration Ordinance allows only one preliminary investigation committee to be set up and the government hopes to increase the number with the reform to hear more complaints simultaneously.

Chan doubted this could be done simply by adding more lay members as the investigation committee chair and deputy have to be doctors, according to the law.

Committee chairman Cheung Tak- hong said on a TVB program he agreed having more doctors could further strengthen the council's function but the bill should not be voted down just because the government is not taking in this suggestion.

"We are not three-year-old kids. You want three candies and I also want three. This should not be the logic," he said.