10 more specialist hospitals under 9MP

NST: The Health Ministry is planning to enhance specialist care in the country, increasing the number of specialist hospitals and creating “hub centres” for certain specialist treatments.
Of the 125 Government hospitals and six special medical institutions, 45 are specialist hospitals.
As well as enhancing the services provided by the existing specialist hospitals, an additional 10 will be built under the Ninth Malaysia Plan, said Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek.
“There are plans to create hub centres for certain specialised treatments, such as Selayang Hospital for gastroenterology, hepatology, hepatobiliary surgery, rheumatology and transplant surgery, colorectal surgery, ophthalmology, hand and microsurgery, and Serdang Hospital for thoracic vascular surgeries,” he said.
Under the Plan, hub centres for stem-cell studies, a tissue bank and nuclear medicine will also be set up, he added.
The Ministry also plans to develop 26 types of sub-specialty treatments, and will train specialists in areas like cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, infectious disease medicine, micro and hand surgery, reproductive medicine, pain medicine, and psycho-geriatric medicine. Some hospitals have already started to provide these additional services.
Dr Chua said that of the 45 specialist hospitals only 32 provide at least five of the basic specialised treatments — general medicine and surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics and orthopaedics.