The bill that will govern the operations of the new Islands Medical Complex, expected to start operating late this year, was approved in its final reading at the Legislative Assembly (AL) yesterday.
The operations budget of the medical institution and eligibility criteria for local residents to access the medical services of the mega-facility built in Cotai continue to top the concerns of the lawmakers who inquired numerous times on the matter.
In response, the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Elsie Ao Ieong, continues to reaffirm the same information provided earlier, noting the three levels of medical service existing in Macau, from free health care to fully private.
Ao Ieong expressed hopes that with the entry into operation of this new unit, said to possess many medical specialty services, there will be less need for the Health Bureau and the Conde de São Januário Medical Center to forward patients to be treated for special medical conditions abroad. Still, she said that this system will continue.
Several lawmakers continue to question the budget for the operation of the hospital as well as its relation to the fees to be charged for medical assistance.
On the topic, Ao Ieong said that there is not yet an operational budget as this will take into account many factors related to the staff and many other aspects, but that it is a matter that is being addressed by the authorities together with the entity that will be in charge of the facility – the Peking Union Medical College.
She noted that the system of public-private partnership chosen for the operation of the facility implies that the medical center needs to have more income than expenditure to be able to accumulate profits to be used “for development purposes.” She noted that the service fees will have a “reasonable price.”
Responding to several inquiries on the topic, the Secretary said that service fees from public and private hospitals in Macau, as well as in the neighboring regions are being considered when producing the final price list of the medical center and will be announced as soon as possible.
Although the government has said over the past few years that work on the preparation and staff training for the new hospital were being done, the Secretary said yesterday that the government might not be able to recruit the approximately 400 staff initially proposed, stating that some services might be affected due to the lack of available manpower.
Nonetheless, the Secretary once again reaffirmed the role of the new facility as a training provider to local medical staff, stating that the institution will take care of the training of interns and specialists as soon as possible. The same will not happen for undergraduates, she explained, emphasizing that the medical center is a specialized hospital and not a university hospital.
