Gov’t to employ two doctors from Portugal

The local SAR government will hire only two of 12 Portuguese doctors, according to Portuguese news agency Lusa.

The Health Bureau (SSM) has said the two specialist doctors will be employed in Internal Medicine.

Initially, SSM director Alvis Lo said eight of 12 doctors met the requirements to join the Islands District Medical Complex in Cotai.

This comes after Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong’s Portugal visit in May, where one of the main agenda topics was the recruitment of physicians from Portugal to work at Macau’s public hospital.

Applications opened shortly after Ao Ieong’s visit, and an advertisement for the different posts was published on the Portuguese Medical Association (Ordem dos Médicos) website.

The SSM said that, of the eight applications, four were submitted by holders of a Macau resident identity card (BIR). As such, they would need to “obtain accreditation before fulfilling the legal requirements for employment.”

“As for the remaining four, who hold Portuguese passports, after the curricular assessment of the Centro Hospitalar Conde de São Januário, the proposal is to hire two specialist Internal Medicine doctors, with the other two still requiring additional information and analysis,” SSM told Lusa.

The Macau government last launched a recruitment drive for physicians from Portugal in 2017.

In September, the government announced that 200 doctors, nurses, administrative staff and other personnel will be recruited in October, with the Peking Union Medical College Hospital sending managers and senior doctors to Macau. 

The SAR government will complete the construction of the Islands Hospital this year, with a phased introduction scheduled for December. The hospital will have more than 800 beds, and more than 300 beds in the rehabilitation hospital.

Officially referred to as the Islands District Medical Complex – Macao Medical Center of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, plans for the new hospital began more than a decade ago. The decision to reclaim a lake, where the current hospital stands, was made by the former government to build a new medical facility to accommodate the growing permanent and transient population in Taipa, Coloane and Cotai.

Staff Reporter