Materia Medica Malaysiana

Setting up private wings need study, says MMA

MMA President Datuk Dr N. Arumugam urged MMA Sabah to look seriously into the shortage of doctors in Sabah.

He said what made this acute in East Malaysia are distance and geographical factors.

He also said MMA hoped the Health Ministry would consider implementing related courses for doctors, especially in the public service, instead of the Skill Level Exam, which has caused much confusion, under the Malaysian Remuneration Scheme.

On the proposed setting up of a private wing in select hospitals, he said this needed to be implemented carefully since a study by MMA showed that there were apprehensions among certain quarters.

He urged doctors to continue gathering and update knowledge especially through Information Technology.

He said there were many advanced and sophisticated medical tools available and this was a challenge for doctors, to keep the healthcare cost at the optimum level while providing the best healthcare service.

He said the MMA had also take the initiative to create the software for the electronic medical record keeping to help better administrative of records.

Dr Arumugam was pleased to note that MMA Sabah had admitted medical college students as members and hoped more could be enrolled into the association.

The MMA Sabah branch 2004/2005 committee are Chairperson Dr Melinda Tong, Vice-Chairman Dr Jagdev Sidhu, Secretary Dr Anil Kumar Kukreja, Treasurer Dr Mariam George, Schomos Chairman Dr Mohd Hatta Tarmizi, PPSMMA chairman Dr Sarvananthan Shanmugam, CME chairman Dr Liaw Yun Haw, committee members Dr Elizabeth Emmanuel, Dr Pulivendhan, Dr Sharon Paulraj and Dr Sumithra Sannasey.