The Cardiac Centre of Sarawak General Hospital

In the coming years, we will give more attention to improving the infrastructure in existing hospitals and strengthening its human resource, rather than continue to build yet more hospitals and clinics,” said YB Dato’ Dr. Chua Soi Lek, Minister of Health.

As healthcare services in Malaysia continue to improve, two major problems have emerged – shortage of health manpower, especially doctors; and maldistribution of health manpower, where some healthcare staff, especially doctors, are reluctant to serve in certain areas of the country.

At present, the shortage of doctors is being eased with the establishment of more medicalschools and through the employment of qualified foreign doctors. About 650 foreign contract doctors have been recruited from Egypt, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and Pakistan to fulfill staffing needs of the newly built community polyclinics and hospitals under the Eighth Malaysia Plan (2001-2005).

Doctors and Specialists are needed especially in developing countries

Currently, the Ministry of Health has over 4,000 clinics and 124 hospitals under its purview. The government is encouraging more Malaysian doctors to serve in their own country by improving medical facilities and benefits such as car parks, consultation and call rooms, better security, better quality food for on-call doctors, and so forth. This is outlined in the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006- 2010), where emphasis is given to the consolidation and upgrading of
existing services, increasing the output of health personnel by increasing capacity of training colleges, and providing more accommodation for staffs.

The Ministry of Health wants to make working life much more conducive and pleasant for the doctors. In developed nations, the doctor to population ratio is 1:800. Malaysia aims to achieve a ratio of 1:600 by 2020. The country’s ratio stands at 1:1,400 last year, with Wilayah Kuala Lumpur at 1:407, Terengganu at 1:2,278, Sarawak at 1:2,499 and Sabah at 1:2,887. Sarawak will need an additional 3,224 doctors by 2015 to realize a doctor to population ratio of 1:650. As the data indicates, there is a distinct shortage and maldistribution of doctors in some states of the country.

The Radiotherapy Unit of Sarawak General Hospital

“To meet the financial requirements of development projects for 2004 and 2005, the Federal Treasury has raised the development budget from RM5.5 billion to RM9.5 billion,” added YB Dato’ Dr. Chua Soi Lek. Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) has benefited from this budget increase with approvals for 2 units of lineac accelerator radiotherapy machines and renovation works of its main tower block – East and West Wings. There are also plans to implement the Ambulatory Care Complex, Second Cardiac Operating Theatre and Second Cardiac Laboratory in SGH in the Ninth Malaysia Plan.