No More New Mental Hospitals, Says Chua

IPOH, July 14 (Bernama) -- No more new mental hospitals are to be built but treatment for mental ailments will be centralised under the community treatment programme to reduce cost and speed up the patient's recovery process.
Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said 50 state and district hospitals would be turned into centralised treatment centres for mental ailments and another 800 health care centres would provide follow-up treatment and medications.
There is no need for more hospitals because not all mental patients require treatment under confinement instead more need community treatment where the family and society come into play.
The testimony to this was the decline of the inmates at Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta from 5,000 to 3,000 since the community treatment was introduced, he told reporters after visiting Hospital Bahagia Ulu Kinta here, Friday.
In a related development, Dr Chua said the number of psychiatrist were inadequate with currently 1 for every 30,000 patients as not many were keen to specialise in psychiatry.
He said Malaysia needs 880 psychiatrists compared to 165 available currently.
However, Dr Chua said to overcome the shortfall about 30 psychiatrists are being trained at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Malaya and Universiti Sains Malaysia under post graduate programme.
Another two groups of psychiatrists are in Melbourne, Australia, undergoing training for community treatment.
"If these pioneer groups succeed in providing effective treatment, we will enhance training and also the numbers to be trained," he said.