BY LOH FOON FONG
GOMBAK: After-hospital home care services are to be provided to patients suffering from chronic diseases.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said 60 locations nationwide would be targeted for these services.
“For a start, an additional 600 staff would be needed for the domiciliary care,” he told reporters after opening the Batu 8 Gombak health clinic, which was upgraded from a community clinic, yesterday.
“We are preparing the master plan, which we hope to complete by the end of this year,” he added.
Dr Subramaniam said the services were part of efforts to improve the public health delivery system in the next four years.
Other measures included increasing the number of health district officers and public health personnel such as doctors, health assistants, public health inspectors, nutritionists and physiotherapists, he added.
The Batu 8 Gombak Health Clinic was upgraded because the population there had grown to 32,000.
“It is one of 14 community clinics in Selangor to be upgraded,” Dr Subramaniam said.
He also said that the ministry would look into bettering the career path of public health personnel.
The minister was responding to an appeal from Gombak district health officer Dr Roslan Ishak who said that public health personnel were not given as much attention as hospital staff.
Dr Roslan also asked the ministry to pay allowances to the health personnel for the long hours they put in.
Public health personnel included district health officers, medical officers, family health physicians, public health inspectors and epidemiologists, he said.
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