Health | Fewer in-patient stays in local hospitals

The Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) has released data on health care in Macau for the whole of last year, noting, among other trends, that the occupancy rate of in-patient beds dropped by 4.6 percentage points to 72 percent.

The government bureau, in a statement released yesterday, attributed the fall to an increase of in-patient beds and a decrease in the average hospital stay. This marked the first year-on-year decline after three consecutive years of growth in this particular metric.

During 2016, the five hospitals in Macau provided a total of 1,591 in-patient beds, up by 97 year-on-
year. The number of in-patients increased by 6.1 percent year-on-
year to 58,000, while the average hospital stay was 7.1 days, down by 0.3 days.

Meanwhile, hospital out-patient attendances increased by 0.4 percent year-on-year to 1,633,000, of which 280,000 (17.1 percent) were consultations in internal medicine, followed by physiotherapy and rehabilitation (216,000) and Chinese medicine (180,000).

Emergency attendances increased slightly by 0.5 percent year-on-year to 477,000, with those in the Macau Peninsula (369,000) rising by 2 percent. On the other hand, emergency attendances in Taipa (109,000) dropped by 4.3 percent, marking the third consecutive year of decline since 2014.

A total of 308,000 doses of vaccine were administered in hospitals and primary health care establishments in 2016, down by 0.8 percent year-on-year, with vaccinations against influenza totaling about  99,000 doses.

DSEC also recorded the number of blood donations, which rose markedly last year, up by 5.8 percent to 10,748. Additionally, first-
time blood donations increased by 9.8 percent to 3,238.

In 2016, there were 1,726 doctors and 2,342 nurses, up by 3.1 percent and 2.8 percent respectively year-on-year. The number of doctors and nurses per 1,000 population was 2.7 and 3.6 respectively, both up by 0.1 as compared with 2015.