Macao sees 5.1 pct more medical consultations in 2021

MACAO, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The total number of medical consultations rose to 3,415,000 in 2021 in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), up 5.1 percent from a year earlier, the SAR's statistic department said on Wednesday.

The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) said that there were 724 primary health care establishments in 2021, including public health centers and private clinics.

The four hospitals in Macao provided a total of 1,744 inpatient beds in 2021, an increase of 29 year on year, said the report. The number of inpatients grew by 7.5 percent to 58,000. Hospital outpatient consultations increased by 12.7 percent year on year to 1,962,000, with those involving people aged 15-24 up 23.6 percent.

Emergency service recipients rose by 13.8 percent year on year to 390,000. Meanwhile, surgical operations performed in 2021 went up by 5.2 percent to about 19,000 cases.

A total of 1,370,000 doses of vaccines were administered at hospitals and primary health care establishments in 2021, an upsurge of 246.7 percent year on year. Most of the vaccinations were with inactivated COVID-19 vaccine and mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

In 2021, a total of 8,624,000 nucleic acid tests for novel coronavirus were conducted at hospitals and primary healthcare establishments in Macao.

The number of blood donations rose by 6.8 percent year on year to 17,664 in 2021, of which first-time donations increased by 7.3 percent to 3,337. A total of 12,324 persons donated blood, up by 6.8 percent.

According to the registration information of the Health Bureau, there were 1,888 doctors and 2,742 nurses in Macao in 2021, a year-on-year growth of 5.5 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively.