Alexis Tam (Center)
As would be expected, health related issues took center stage yesterday on the first day of the Social Affairs and Culture sector Policy Address debate at the Legislative Assembly.
Secretary Alexis Tam said that there are four main points guiding the policies under his watch for the coming year, namely maximizing existing health care resources, raising educational standards, implementing permanent mechanisms to support and care for vulnerable groups, and boosting the establishment of a “world tourism and leisure center.”
“Health for me is the priority of all priorities,” he said, giving lead to the plenary debate with interventions that ranged between praise for what was already achieved and doubts regarding the feasibility of what is intended for next year. Lawmakers, including Sio Chi Wai, Pereira Coutinho, Wong Kit Cheng, Cheung Lup Kwan, Gabriel Tong, Melinda Chan, and Si Ka Lon, addressed concerns over the possibility of recruiting such a “large number” [2,000, according to Tam’s estimate] of health care professionals over the next five years.
Also on the topic of health, lawmaker Lam Heong Sang questioned the secretary about the need to create a “medical academy”. In his opinion, “it is better to do this physician [postgraduate] training in Hong Kong or Guangzhou instead of wanting to have everything here in Macau, a small city,” he said.
Wong Kit Cheng and Si Ka Lon also remarked that some of the “achievements” stated by the secretary, like the extended opening hours to create four specialized services at the public hospital and two health care centers, might in fact be creating extra pressure on healthcare workers, putting at risk the quality of their performance and potentially raising the likelihood of medical errors.
Alexis Tam once again reaffirmed his hopes that the new Islands hospital would be ready to enter into operation in 2019. “Until 2017 I’m sure we will not have the hospital [open]. But I hope in 2019 everything will be working,” he said.
‘Blue Sky’ project raises questions
After health, education was another of the “hot” topics of the day with some lawmakers’ showing disbelief at the scheduling for the “Blue Sky” project that aims to remove fifteen school institutions from building podiums and give them better facilities.
Although the lawmakers all agreed that the measure is “a good thing”, some, like Chan Hong and Si Ka Lon, expressed concerns over the 20 year period set for the duration of the project as well as finding the space to build the new facilities. “I understand that the ‘Blue Sky’ project needs time, but 20 years? In my opinion land is a big problem,” Si said. Melinda Chan also asked, “Which school will want to move to Seac Pai Van?”
The Audit Commission (CA) report over the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau’s (DSEJ) lack of control in granting private school subsidies was also recalled with the Secretary stating, “I agree with these suggestions from CA and I’ve alerted everybody, not just DSEJ and IAS, including my office, to have a prudent attitude regarding public money.”
Kou Hoi In went further and questioned the government on the potential spike in unemployment due to the possibility of many casino workers being dismissed over the gaming slowdown. “We have 90,000 workers in the six [gaming] operators; most of them have poor qualifications. How to solve this? This can be a serious problem. Unemployment can rise a lot,” he said.
The University of Macau (UM) was also mentioned, with Pereira Coutinho stating that one of the topics the policy address refers to is the development of language training, especially Mandarin, Portuguese and English. The lawmaker probed the government’s strategy on this matter since, in his opinion, “The Polytechnic Institute is doing a good job regarding the protocols signed with the Portuguese government on language development, but the University of Macau is ‘cutting’ Portuguese [classes],” he said.
UM rector Wei Zhao, called to reply, said: “We have undergraduate programs with mandatory core subjects, plus the optional ones. At this time and after an internal study, we hope that more students can opt for some subjects that are more relevant for their degree. There are also some options in which a greater number of credits are required. For example, also we have a ‘major’ and ‘ minor’ in the Masters degrees. For now what we are going to do is to try to communicate better with teachers, and warn people that we will not cut the Portuguese language courses,” he said.
The UM Rector also revealed that the university recently hired three new teachers for the department in order to continue their task of “promoting and developing the Portuguese language”.
four new nursing homes by 2018
Answering the questions of several lawmakers, the Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) president Ip Peng Kin revealed that by 2018 Macau will have four new nursing homes with space for 750 elderly. The IAS head also mentioned that the bureau is currently working on an accreditation norm that will create an “ISO style” certification for the nursing home facilities in order to improve their quality. According to the same source, the current number of local nursing home residents stands at about 1700, with a waiting list of about 500. “We hope that in about one year people can enter acceptable [facilities],” he stated.
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