Ministry Opts For More Mobile Clinics To Serve Rural Sarawak, Sabah

MIRI, March 7 (Bernama) -- The Health Ministry has opted to provide more mobile clinics to serve rural Sarawak and Sabah under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006-2010) as a means of circumventing the reluctance of doctors to serve in the rural areas, Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said Tuesday.
He said the mobile clinics would enable doctors to go to the rural areas and return the same day, without having to be separated from their families for too long.
The Cabinet had agreed in principle to the proposal, and the question now was to determine the number of mobile clinics the government would make available, he said when opening the RM16.5 million Tudan Health Clinic, here.
The clinic provides services such as outpatient treatment, maternal and child health and dental treatment and has support services such as a pharmacy unit, a radiology unit, medical laboratory and physiotherapy unit.
The number of mobile clinics to be made available for Sarawak and Sabah would be determined once the financial allocation had been made, he said.
Dr Chua said the ministry had difficulty providing health services to people in the interior areas who could not be reached by land transportation.
"The question of ensuring that people in the rural areas enjoy the same health standard as the urban people is a major challenge for the ministry," he said.
In this connection, he said, the ministry would upgrade health facilities at state and district hospitals, particularly in the interior areas of Sarawak and Sabah, under the ninth plan.