Health university on the cards

NST: KUANTAN: A health university could be on the cards as the Health Ministry mulls ways to replace its training institutes, which have been turning out most of the country's public health workers.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad mooted the idea of the university after taking into account that all 35 nursing training colleges in the country had the necessary facilities to turn Malaysia into a nursing hub.
"All the colleges provide training programmes under a well-structured management team, which also has the necessary infrastructure.
"These colleges, which offer nursing and other training programmes, can accommodate up to 15,000 students and produce about 3,000 graduates every year," Latiff said after presenting scrolls at a graduation ceremony for nurses here yesterday.
Latiff said it was time that these training institutes, which had successfully produced thousands of nurses, health assistants and lab assistants, were upgraded to a health university.
In yesterday's event, 269 graduates from the Kuantan Nursing College and Jerantut Community Nursing College here received their certificates and diplomas.
On the issue of melamine contamination of products from China, Latiff said consumers should keep track of the food products banned by the ministry.
"We have been conducting checks on biscuit brands and would reveal if more items were to be banned.
"The manufacturers have been cooperative and followed our orders to remove the affected brands from the shelves."
The Khong Guan and Khian Guan biscuit brands were found to contain the banned industrial chemicals.