YAB Pehin Sri Dr. Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud, Chief Minister of Sarawak (second left), viewing the TPC exhibits during its launch at Sibu General Hospital

It took 9 years to develop, but the fruits of labor have been realized with the launching of the Teleprimary Care (TPC) service in Johor and Sarawak recently. A total of 28 rural clinics in Johor and 17 clinics in Sarawak have been chosen for the pilot TPC project, where Sultanah Aminah Hospital in Johor Baru and Sibu General Hospital in Sarawak are the designated referral centres.

“With the TPC project initiated by the Federal government, rural health care service will improve tremendously, particularly for the rural folks,” stated YAB Pehin Sri Dr. Haji Taib Mahmud, Chief Minister of Sarawak, when he launched TPC in Sibu General Hospital, linking 16 clinics in the Rejang Basin from Belawai to Belaga.

Sarawak has approximately 1.1 million rural folks, making up close to 51% of the state’s population of 2.3 million. The TPC service employs various applications of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) – teleconsultation, continuing medical education, mass customized and personalized health information and education, and lifetime health plan.

This RM27 million pilot project will help increase availability of specialist care for rural people and reduce the professional isolation of health staff serving in rural areas. The initial phase covers 6 disciplines – obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, internal medicine, dermatology, family health and epidemiology.

Clinics are provided with hardware, local area networks and satellite communications to allow for teleconsultation with specialists, as well as support services such as laboratory, imaging and prescription. Sarawak has 21 hospitals, 250 clinics, and 5 medical specialists in each district serving the urban areas, and 117 mobile clinics and 173 flying doctors serving the rural areas.

“All a patient needs to do is just go to the nearest clinic with TPC service, and health problems requiring specialist’s attention could be taken care of using the online system,” said YB Datuk Dr. Chua Soi Lek, Minister of Health, Malaysia.

	Video conferencing in progress with Sibu TPC prototype
Teleprimary Care (TPC) elevates the level of health care service for everyone, especially rural folks

Rural folks are able to seek medical advice for laboratory tests, surgery, consultation and x-rays in key fields through video conferencing. In addition, TPC will facilitate online storage of medical records and patients’ data for reference and retrieval. Considered a borderless system, and the first in the region, TPC will only work if people are responsive to the online services. About 800 medical personnel have been trained to manage and provide the TPC service.

TPC is in line with the policy of the Ministry of Health to use ICT not for its own sake, but using it as an ‘enabler’ for making health care more accessible, more equitable and more efficient.