The Macau Union Hospital will open to the public 16 September, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong officially announced on Friday. The new facility, located at the end of the Cotai Strip, had been known as the Islands Healthcare Complex while under construction.
Ao Ieong said 400 people were expected to be working at the public-private hospital by the year’s end, and noted that the recruitment process was underway.
More than 50 specialist staff from Peking Union Medical College Hospital – which is in charge of operating the public-private hospital – had already been deployed from Beijing to work in the SAR. They have been treating cases transferred by the Health Bureau in 24 different specialties, she noted.
[See more: Islands Healthcare Complex professionals to be hired under private labour laws]
X-ray, CT scanning and ultrasound services will be available from the hospital’s opening date, which is also when it will start accepting bookings from patients overseas. Ao Ieong said that the hospital’s international medicine centre would eventually boast a “medical aesthetics” department (meaning cosmetic, or plastic, surgery).
However, emergency services were not expected to be available at the Macau Union Hospital from the get-go. “The hospital will only be able to provide these services when the necessary equipment and specialties are complete, as well as [when] the operating rooms and equipment for various radiology and imaging exams are subject to rigorous testing,” Ao Ieong clarified.
When the Macau Union Hospital is fully operational, it will be the largest medical facility in Macao – with around 800 beds in the primary building alone. An adjacent 300-bed rehabilitation hospital is scheduled to open in 2026.
