Medical professional accreditation bill on horizon

The indirectly-elected legislator from the medical sector, Chan Iek Lap, said a bill on medical professionals accreditation has been under discussion at the medical affairs committee for more than a year and that the discussion is nearly coming to an end and will be passed to Health Bureau consultants for revision. He expects the government to pass the bill to the Legislative Assembly within this year. He was speaking on a TDM radio forum last Friday.
The Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam Chon Weng, announced last week that in 2015 the public health sector plans to recruit 529 more staff and is considering increasing the salary of medics. The announcement aroused some fear that the private health sector might lose staff.
Chan Iek Lap commented that not only in the medical sector but also in other government departments whenever the government is hiring there will be a fluctuation of human resources in the market due to the different salary, welfare and benefits structure of the government and the private sector.
Mr. Chan stressed that the government shouldn’t focus on its own needs but balance the public and private health sector and make medium and long term plans so that the private health sector can prepare and hopefully not suffer too much by losing human resources.
He is also of the opinion that an overly strong public health sector would harm the overall healthy development of the medical sector. He agrees that there is a social need for free medical service as a security net to some extent but points out that society also needs to reflect on whether the government should serve as last resort in solving any problem.
With regard to the medical coupon that the government has launched for five years for local residents to use at private clinics, Mr. Chan said that the purpose was to help the private clinics’ business as well as lower the burden on the public hospital and encourage residents to maintain their health. He said the effects so far, however, were not obvious and attributed this to the relatively low value of the coupon and suggested increasing it to MOP1,200 per year per resident from the current MOP600 per year per resident.
He added that besides increasing benefits and welfare the authorities should pay attention to whether medical staff have a sense of achievement in their posts.
The Health Bureau representative explained to the radio audience that there is an accreditation mechanism for Macau residents who receive medical education outside the SAR to be recognised and be received in the local medical sector.
J.K.