Human resources | Region in need of medical professionals

Van Iat Kio

The president of the Kiang Wu Nursing College of Macau (KWNC), Van Iat Kio, argues that hospitals in Macau are facing a shortage of health care professionals.
During a lecture last week, Van Iat Kio said that 60 percent of the branches of medicine are struggling to find highly qualified medics and nurses, particularly in areas of ophthalmology and cardiology. According to data provided by the Social Affairs and Culture Bureau, in 2014 only 89 nurses out of a total of 1,020 (8.7 percent), had specialized training, which pales in comparison to the 25 percent for Hong Kong.
Around eighty nine percent of doctors have medical degrees that were issued on the mainland, while Macau has trained 69.4 percent of the nurses who are currently working in local public and private hospitals. Noticeably, only 4.4 percent of high school graduates choose medical subjects.
Van Iat Kio said that “only a few schools are providing a selection of majors in medical specialties, and the flourishing gaming industry has also diminished students’ interest in the subject.” In Macau there are four higher education institutions currently offering a total of nine medicine-related degrees.
Besides the aforementioned issues, another challenge for the medical profession concerns the rate of employees working for private medical care companies who leave their jobs. It has become common to see doctors and nurses in private hospitals lured to the public medical system by the relatively higher salaries. Female nurses, who represent 95 percent of all nurses in Macau, are also thought to readily give up their careers in order to be closer to their families. “Under normal conditions, they would join government departments, and others would do social work,” Van Iat Kio told the Times.
Medical assistants quitting their jobs has also not been going unnoticed in the public domain. Van expressed that “within the medical system, there are not many opportunities for nurses to get promoted.” The president of the KWNC notes that the standards for registered medical professionals and assistants are different between local private and public hospitals. “Legal regulations concerning a unified medical employee registry are under discussion,” Van revealed. “It will be forwarded to the Legislative Assembly later this year or early next year.”
If the law is approved, doctors, dentists, nurses, physical therapists, and 11 other types of professionals will be able to obtain specific work licenses in their field. Staff reporter