RM800 Mln For UM Faculty Of Medicine, Medical Centre Development

KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 (Bernama) -- The University of Malaya has been allocated RM800 million under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP) to upgrade the infrastructure and the facilities of its Faculty of Medicine and Medical Centre.
Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Development) Prof Dr Muhamad Rasat Muhamad said the university was happy with the allocation though it had asked for more.
"But now we are given the amount, so we have to reorganise and strategise what to put it in for our project," he said, declining however to disclose the project.
Generally, the allocation was to improve the faculty of medicine, the UM Medical Centre and its services to achieve world-class standard, he told reporters after opening an Endoscopy Workshop with the theme "Frontiers of Therapeutic Endoscopy" jointly organised by the University of Malaya and the Malaysian Society of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (MSGH).
He said the allocation would help to make UM's Faculty of Medicine the best medical school and the UMMC the best teaching hospital in the country.
"The thrust of the 9MP is human capital development. We want to produce good doctors and health-related professionals such as pharmacists, nurses and biomedicine scientists.
"In that sense, we need to improve the faculty of medicine but this cannot be done if the hospital component is also not at par with the teaching component. If we do this, the service to the public would be improved whilst taking advantage of the available equipment," he added.
Dean of the faculty, Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Amin Jalaludin, said the faculty would improve the gastrointestine tract service.
The faculty would also improve its Minimally Invasive Complex -- a one-stop centre for all seizures such as cardiac -- whereby the radiologists and cardiologists, neuro surgeons and gastroentrologists work as a team.
Mohd Amin said the university produced between 10 and 20 internal medicine positions annually and the other two universities, between 30 and 40 positions.
"Among these, they would come back for sub-specialisation in certain areas such as gastroentrology. At the same time, we are accepting people from other countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia to do a fellowship in the centre between one and two years," he said.