Health | Alzheimer’s Service Center established at central hospital

A center for the evaluation and treatment of patients with Alzheimer’s Disease is now open at the Conde de São Januário Central Hospital (CSJCH), providing one-stop medical services to Macau’s Alzheimer’s patients.
The center seeks to help people with signs of Alzheimer’s who have been evaluated in any other health center in the city, or those who have been diagnosed with the neurological disease.
Aside from the medical treatment patients receive at the CSJCH, they will also be supported with home care.
According to Lo Iek Long, adviser at the Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, the new center is able to handle between 20 to 30 patients in total. It is expected that patients will have to wait one month to be transferred to the center, a shorter waiting period compared to the current three months. “There will be three doctors in the fields of Geriatrics, Psychiatry and Neurosurgery, all from CSJCH,” informed Lo, declaring that the new center did not have to apply for new medical professionals.
The center also “did not apply for some facilities, as many of them are already available at the CSJCH,” said Lo.
Another function of the facility is to provide an emergency center when necessary. The center was subjected to a drill on Tuesday, when simulated patients from a marine accident needed to be forwarded to the hospital. “It takes ten minutes for the center to be transformed into an emergency one,” Lo claimed.
Lo informed that Macau currently has approximately 4,000 Alzheimer’s patients, with about 1,500 confirmed to carry this type of neurological disease.
Fittingly on World Alzheimer’s Day yesterday, Alexis Tam, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, inaugurated the center.
Besides the center, a service network for Macau’s Alzheimer’s patients has also been established. Tam said that “Marc Wortmann, Executive Director of Alzheimer’s Disease International sent a congratulations letter, praising the SAR’s work, and showed himself available to assist Macau in promoting related works on an international level, including the introduction of Macau’s Alzheimer’s service network in the next World Alzheimer Report.”
Also yesterday prior to the center’s inauguration, the Secretary visited the Centro de Cuidados Especiais. Tam noted there that the city is enhancing the welfare of the old. Tam acknowledged that Macau’s average age is increasing, a fact which is being addressed because of the attention both he and the IAS have drawn to the issue.
Tam also informed that a new center for Alzheimer patients will be established at the Centro de Saúde da Areia Preta. JZ