Number of doctors and nurses increases in 2019

The number of doctors practising in Macau increased by 3.1 per cent year-on-year in 2019, amounting to some 1,808, with the number of nurses rising 1.1 per cent to 2,491.

Overall, there were 2.7 doctors and 3.7 nurses per 1,000 habitants, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) finding that a health worker density of 2.3 skilled health workers per 1,000 people was generally necessary for states to attain high coverage.

WHO data also indicates that globally the ratio of doctors to other health workers was about 1/1.5.

However, the number of hospital beds provided in the five local hospitals only saw 24 new beds added to a total of 1,628 in-patient beds in 2019, while the number of in-patients admitted went up by 4 per cent year-on-year to 62,000, with the average hospital stay rising to 7.4 days.

The number of blood donations also increased by 3.9 per cent year-on-year to 15,441, with a total of 11,150 persons donating blood in 2019, an increase of 3.6 per cent year-on-year with 3,369 first-time blood donations reported.

The total number of consultations 2019 also increased by 4.5 per cent year-on-year to more than 4.1 million of which consultations in government health establishments went up by 4.7 per cent to 939,000 and consultations in private clinics rose by 4.4 per cent to more than 3.1 million.