Health Minister: Total of 63 hospitals now open to housemen

Star: KAJANG: More hospitals are being made available to universities so that nearly 10,000 medical students can be trained compared to 6,500 housemen now, said Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.
The ministry has added 22 district government hospitals, bringing the total number of hospitals hosting housemen to 63, he said.
“The chosen hospitals will be able to give better service with the addition of more staff and, in return, provide new facilities to train medical students.
“Housemen need to practise their specialties at district level as there is a lack of specialists in district hospitals,” he said after witnessing the signing of three Memoranda of Agreement between the ministry and Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Utar), here, Monday.
The agreements signed would allow UTAR students studying nursing, physiotherapy, biomedical science, biochemistry and microbiology to be placed at one of 13 hospitals or eight health clinics in the country.
Meanwhile, Liow said the Traditional and Complementary Medicine (TCM) bill would not be postponed as all the relevant parties, including Traditional Chinese Medicine associations and practitioners, had been consulted on the Act.
Once the bill is passed, the industry would be registered under a council and regulated the same way doctors are monitored by the medical board.
“Treatment will better regulated and practitioners can be held liable if they do not give proper treatment to their patients,” said Liow, adding that the act would also cut down on fly-by-night TCM practitioners.
Ayurvedic and Traditional Malay medicine practitioners would also be regulated under the new act.
Liow said the objective was not only to regulate and enforce the industry, but to allow the ministry to officially fund research for evidence-based TCM.