In 2024, Macau’s five hospitals treated 2.54 million patients, according to the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) earlier this week. This represents a year-on-year growth of 1.9 percent. At the end of last year, Macau’s population was 688,300.
The 2.54 million patients included those receiving outpatient, inpatient, emergency, and surgical services. The number of patients receiving outpatient services rose to 1.99 million, while emergency services saw 463,000 patients, and inpatient services accounted for 63,000. These figures reflected increases of 2.1 percent, 0.5 percent, and 4.1 percent, respectively.
Chinese medicine represented the largest proportion of outpatient-service recipients at 13.3 percent, followed by physiotherapy and rehabilitation at 12.6 percent.
As of the end of last year, Macau had 733 primary healthcare units, including public health centres and private clinics. The total number of consultations in these units increased by 3.6 percent year on year to 3.92 million in 2024. Consultations at private clinics rose to 3.01 million, while those at public health centres reached 913,000, marking increases of 3.3 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively.
In 2024, Macau had 2,030 registered doctors (an increase of 50), 73 Chinese medicine practitioners (up by 4), 304 dentists/odontologists (down by 2), and 3,058 nurses (up by 78). This resulted in a ratio of 2.9 doctors, 1.1 Chinese medicine practitioners, 0.4 dentists/odontologists, and 4.4 nurses per 1,000 population, similar to the figures in 2023.
The five hospitals comprised 1,779 inpatient beds, a decrease of 103 from the previous year. The occupancy rate for these beds was 71.5 percent, down by 2.3 percentage points year-on-year.
