Gov’t to hire around 400 health professionals next year

2013-12-3

From：Macau Daily Times

The Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture revealed yesterday, during the Policy Address presentation at the Legislative Assembly (AL), that he has requested the Director of the Health Bureau (SSM) to prioritize the recruitment of health sector professionals. Cheong U reported that the SSM will hire 389 people in 2014 to fill the new and current vacancies, with 187 of them being medical professionals. He believes that this will ease the human resources pressure on the Bureau.
In addition, SSM Director Lei Chin Ion told lawmakers that the 24-hour clinic in the new emergency department of the Conde de São Januário Central Hospital will open on December 17. The Bureau has also provided a number of medical services in its health centers for senior citizens, including  on the elderly health protection clinic, medicine consultation services for elders, and a clinic for memory issues. SSM is also cooperating with other organizations to provide in-house care services for elderly residents.
Lawmakers pressed Cheong U on issues such as the healthcare and daycare services of Macau, as well as the smoking regulations in casinos, during yesterday’s plenary session. The Secretary has promised to increase the number of daycare operators and to improve the healthcare system. He was asked to confirm that there would be enough places in the coming years and to reveal the plans that the government will adopt to tackle the issue.
Cheong U said that the government understands people’s concern over the lack of daycare and kindergarten places. He added that the number of daycare places has been increased from 3800 in 2008 to this year’s 6,500. However, he acknowledged that this still cannot fully answer the demand from society. The government has planned to increase the number to 8,200 in 2014, and strive to further boost the number to 10,000 in or before 2016. However,  Cheong pointed out that the government is also facing difficulties in looking for space to open daycare facilities. Nevertheless, it has already helped some private daycare centres to operate earlier or to receive more children by providing administrative assistance.
As for kindergarten places, the Secretary estimated that there will be 18,000 kindergarten students in the 2015-16 school year. He stated that there are already 17,000 kindergarten places at the moment, receiving around 13,000 students. Mr Cheong believed that there could be 21,100 places available in 2015-16 to satisfy the demand.
Another question lawmakers brought up is why the government doesn’t impose penalties on those casinos that failed the air quality test. Some asked if the authority is “scared of” the gambling sector. Lawmaker Lei Cheng I slammed the government for not following the law when handling the issue of smoking regulations in casinos. “Currently, casino workers have been making complaints to us and have said that casinos have put all the tables in the smoking area. So the effect of smoking (on employees) is even worse than before. They also accused the casinos of putting air purifiers there to cover up the bad air quality. But you (the government) can’t discover them and deal with them. Some casinos know that their air quality is below standard from their own testing. But the government didn’t really punish one single casino for their air quality. You even said that it has to wait until January next year. Do you call it ‘governing according to the law’? It is obvious that the government is not following the laws on this issue and is scared of the casinos,” said Ms. Lei. Another  lawmaker, Angela Leong, also demanded answers on why the government doesn’t implement a total smoking ban in casinos.
In reply, the Secretary said that the job of the frontline smoking regulation officials is “very tough” and that people should not ask the government to reach its goal in one step. He pointed out that the number of casinos with low air quality has been reducing and his departments are working on the issue. The Secretary also said that he has heard other opinions on the smoking ban. Some suggested that casinos can implement the ban in their mess area and set up a smoking room.

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