The government’s newly-completed Public Health Building, which is located next to the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, was inaugurated by Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng on Friday.
Providing 160 isolation beds, the new facility is equipped with various devices that can “significantly” raise its capability to treat communicable disease patients suffering from a serious condition.
The Health Bureau announced details of the new health facility in a statement on Friday.
Construction of the building, which got off the ground in late 2018, was completed in May this year. The construction cost around one billion patacas.
The Public Health Building, informally known as communicable disease building, is the first-phase extension of the adjacent public hospital.
An inauguration ceremony was held at the new Public Health Building on Friday afternoon, when Ho unveiled its inaugural plaque where he was accompanied by Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U, her chief-of-cabinet Ho Ioc San, Health Bureau (SSM) Director Alvis Lo Iek Long, and SSM Deputy Director Kuok Cheong U. Kuok, one of the bureau’s three deputy directors, also heads the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre.
The government proposed in 2016 to construct the communicable disease building with the aim of raising the city’s isolation-facility capacity. The project was then opposed by some of those living in nearby residential buildings.
Communicable disease threat
Delivering a speech during the inauguration ceremony, Dr Lo noted that although the COVID-19 pandemic is over, the world is still facing a threat of communicable diseases, because of which it is necessary for Macau to always stay highly vigilant against a possible communicable disease outbreak by constantly enhancing its capability to tackle various communicable diseases, namely constant improvements to legislation concerning communicable disease prevention and treatment, contingency plans, facilities, reserves of materials, and staff training, the health chief said.
Dr Lo said that the operational start of the Public Health Building, in conjunction with its adjacent Public Health Emergency Personnel Accommodation Building capable of housing up to 208 health workers and with the existing 120 isolation beds in the bureau’s Public Health Clinical Centre in Coloane, marked a new phase in the construction of isolation facilities in the city.
10 intensive care beds
Friday’s SSM statement noted that the eight-storey Public Health Building has a gross floor area of 30,900 square metres. The building has 80 high-standard isolation wards equipped with a total of 160 beds, 10 of which are intensive care beds.
According to the statement, patients using the intensive care beds will receive treatment such as extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (treatment provided by an artificial lung) or haemodialysis. The statement said that the equipment in the Public Health Building can raise the city’s capability to treat communicable disease patients suffering a serious condition.
The statement said that the new building is equipped with resuscitation rooms, negative-pressure operating theatres, imaging examination rooms using computed tomography (CT) scans, and a clinical laboratory capable of treating infectious samples.
The statement underlined that the Public Health Building has been constructed in strict compliance with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) standards for communicable disease prevention and control. The building is equipped with a high-efficiency air filtration system, an ultraviolet (UV) disinfection system, an intelligent central surveillance system and a patient-tracking system.
The statement noted that the new Public Health Building is connected with the adjacent public hospital through an enclosed footbridge. It is also linked with the adjacent Public Health Emergency Personnel Accommodation Building via another enclosed footbridge.
If Macau is affected by a new epidemic, the statement said, the Public Health Building will be able to provide better medical support for communicable disease patients and favourable conditions for the possible implementation of closed-loop management measures for health workers.
To be used as general hospital facilities during non-epidemic period
When Macau is not affected by an epidemic, according to the statement, isolation wards in the Public Health Building will be used as general hospital wards, and a part of its atrium will be used for a blood-collection facility.
After the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic which began in early 2020, the local government started early this year to tackle COVID-19 as an endemic disease.
During Friday’s ceremony, Dr Lo said that the Public Health Building’s carpark will be open to members of the public who visit the public hospital there. He did not reveal the exact schedule as to when the carpark will open.
Dr Lo said that with Macau’s ageing population and the corresponding increased incidence of chronic diseases, the number of inpatients at the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre has increased 50 percent over the past decade, during which the number of those seeking outpatient treatment there has risen by 40 percent.
Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng (third from right) applauds after unveiling the inaugural plaque of the new Public Health Building on Friday, accompanied by senior officials such as Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U (second from left) and Health Bureau (SSM) Director Alvis Lo Iek Long (left). – Photo: SSM
