MACAU: Lawmaker Urges Government To Review Emergency Services For Elderly

. MACAU, SAR China / Macau Daily Times / February 25, 2008: In response to criticisms of the 37 elderly deaths during the recent Chinese New Year holiday, lawmaker Leong Iok Wa passed an interpellation to the government inquiring as to the efficacy and sufficiency of elderly emergency services and advising that services for the elderly cater to the climate change. In the interpellation, Ms Leong said that the emergency services such as the safety bell may not be enough to ensure the safety of the elderly as they might not be able to achieve the latest information of what was happening in order to protect themselves. Even though the report of elderly deaths during the Lunar New Year may be perfectly adequate and the Health Bureau had already clarified that the true reasons for the deaths was not due to the snow-stricken weather, the incidence should still raise the attention of society on the emergency assistance services for the elderly, especially those living alone, she said. She also asked that the government co-operate with the community associations to establish a database for the elderly living alone in order to emulate the elderly catering service network and the emergency assistance services. Likewise, the interpellation indicated that the government and according bureaux did not provide enough flexible accommodation for the sudden severe climate, while most of the elderly catering services except for the elderly centre had all been closed during the Lunar New Year. She quoted the information from the Statistics and Census Bureau, saying that the number of elderly deaths during the winter was obviously higher than that of other months and that people who were over 60 years old, who went to the Conde S. Januario Hospital, were recorded at a higher record than in the same period last year. Ms Leong asked the government if the according bureaux had taken this incident as a reference in order to improve their emergency adjustment capabilities. Moreover, the interpellation also indicated that the Health Bureau may not be putting enough effort into other issues besides the pandemic disease prevention. In addition, she also asked what exact work was the Bureau doing and whether the government and according bureau should review the spontaneous disease notification system. © 2007 Macau Daily Times