Ministry extends on-line medical service for rural folk

Star: KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry hopes to extend its rural on-line medical service Teleprimary Care (TPC) to Sabah, Sarawak and Pahang.
The service, launched in 2005, now covers 87 areas in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Perlis and Sarawak. The system covers specialist services in family medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, internal medicine, dermatology, epidermatology and paediatrics.Cases in rural areas would be transmitted to urban hospitals for diagnosis and advice by specialists so that the patients need not travel.
Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the extension of the service would benefit millions in rural areas without good transportation.
“We want to save them time and money and to get more specialists to look into rural patients,” he said after launching the HiMSS Asia Pac 2009 Conference and Exhibition yesterday.
Liow said the allocation for the extension would depend on the second economic stimulus package next month. So far, RM35.5mil had been spent on the services.
Meanwhile, he said the public should not be worried about higher healthcare costs with the implementation of more information technology because it would only improve healthcare quality and make delivery systems more efficient.
“Actually, it should lower the costs (of healthcare) since we’re improving productivity,” he said.