Materia Medica Malaysiana

Ministries to submit paper on improving health services

THE Higher Education and Health Ministries will submit a working paper to the cabinet containing proposed solutions to improve the country’s health service.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Shafie Mohd Salleh said the working paper would address problems such as the shortage of doctors in government hospitals as well as the quality of foreign doctors employed here.

“The Cabinet directed the two ministries to come up with the working paper on long term measures for the numerous problems of government hospitals. Among the areas covered are increasing the number of local doctors in government hospitals, wooing back Malaysian doctors and specialists serving abroad by making the service more attractive."

He said the two ministries had to work closely together towards this end as universities “supply hospitals with the doctors they require”.

“To accommodate these additional medical graduates in the future, hospitals must have better infrastructure, better facilities and must be expanded,” he said.“That is why it must be a joint initiative by both ministries,” he told reporters after opening the new Universiti Malaya Medical Centre Emergency and Trauma Centre recently.