The new Islands Healthcare Complex in Cotai will be operated by Peking Union Medical College Hospital under an innovative management system that will be the first of its kind in Macao.
Under the terms of a bill submitted to the Legislative Assembly (AL), the complex’s staff will be regulated by the city’s labour legal system for the private sector, rather than by the government’s employment system for public servants, with the aim of increasing the flexibility in recruiting highly-qualified health professionals.
Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon, who is also the spokesman for the government’s top advisory Executive Council, announced late last month that the government had finished drafting the bill.
The bill has now been uploaded onto the AL’s website, though no date has been set for a session for the debate and vote of the bill’s outline.
The Macao government announced in late 2021 that it had decided to commission Peking Union Medical College Hospital, which is also known as Beijing Xiehe Hospital, to operate the Cotai complex, which is scheduled to start operating in phases at the end of this year.
The construction of the complex’s three main buildings – a general hospital, a logistics support building and an administration and multi-purpose building – was completed last month. The Cotai hospital project is being built in phases – six buildings in the first phase and one in the second phase.
The first phase comprises the three main buildings, a nursing college, staff quarters and a central laboratory building.
The nursing college was completed in October 2019, while the staff quarters were topped out in September last year.
The construction of the central laboratory building is now slated to be completed in March this year, when the whole first phase of the Cotai hospital complex will be completed.
At present, the government has not said when construction of the rehabilitation hospital will start.
An explanatory note of the bill points out that the Macao government decided in 2021 to cooperate with Peking Union Medical College Hospital in the operation and management of the Cotai hospital complex after considering the National Health Commission’s suggestion.
The note says that the bill is needed for the local government to develop the city’s health tourism and “big health” sector.
The bill stipulates that the Macao government will ensure that the operation of the Islands Healthcare Complex will be sufficiently financed, while Peking Union Medical College Hospital will be responsible for operating and managing the Cotai hospital complex, through its “brand” and medical techniques, in collaboration with the Macao government.
According to the bill, the Cotai hospital complex’s operation will be overseen by the secretary for social affairs and culture.
According to the bill, the Islands Healthcare Complex, as a public health institution, shall have six objectives:
* Providing healthcare in Macao;
* Supporting the implementation of the Macao government’s health policy;
* Providing specialty medical education and conducting medical research in compliance with Macao’s health policy;
* Promoting the development of Macao’s health system and healthcare;
* Participating in the development of a big health sector with the aim of supporting Macao’s appropriate economic diversification; and
* Developing itself into a national-level regional medical centre.
The bill proposes the setting up of an eight-strong strategic development committee as the Islands Healthcare Complex’s top decision-making body. The bill’s explanatory note says that members from Peking Union Medical College Hospital’s management team will be “an important part” of the Islands Healthcare Complex’s development committee.
The bill proposes that the Cotai hospital complex will have its own system regulating staff recruitment, selection, hiring, salaries and benefits, social security payments, performance evaluation, incentives, and disciplinary measures, which will not be subject to rules of the city’s legal system concerning the employment of public servants, The Macau Post Daily reported.
