BY LOH FOON FONG
KUALA LUMPUR: In an effort to improve primary care services, the Academy of Family Physicians signed an MoU with the Government to formalise the recognition of its training to produce family physicians.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said due to limited places at the local universities for medical postgraduate courses, this was another way for doctors to be trained.
“We are living in an era of information explosion and it’s important that doctors adopt the spirit of continuously upgrading themselves,” he said at the signing of the memorandum yesterday.
The academy has been collaborating with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners for 36 years to produce family physicians who are specialists in general practice.
Dr Subramaniam said the effort was part of the Government’s policy to provide more equitable healthcare to all.
So far, there are more than 6,000 general practitioners in the country and 800 were family medicine specialists.
The presence of family medicine specialists helps improve the quality of services in health clinics, with laboratory services, diagnostic imaging and specialist-category drugs. And, these helped reduce congestion in hospitals.
Under the agreement, both parties would continue to work together to recognise and encourage family medicine as a distinct discipline, while promoting enhanced skills and professionalism among medical practitioners.
The MoU was signed between Health director-general Datuk Seri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah and the academy’s president Prof Datuk Dr DM Thuraiappah.
At the event, Dr Subramaniam also said it was outrageous to put on braces as a “fashion statement” without consulting orthodontists.
On Thursday, Harian Metro reported that a 25-year-old woman had taken off her fake braces which she wore for fun after learning that her best friend who had worn fake dental braces for a year had died from intestinal cancer.
She claimed specialist doctors treating her believed that this could have been due to wearing the fake dental braces.
A check with the ministry’s Oral Health Division revealed that they had not received any complaints on the use of fake braces but had received four complaints on untrained personnel putting braces for people since last year.
It said that the trend seemed to have started last year in Malaysia although these had been around for several years in this region.
While the division did not have any evidence of cancer related to fake braces, they had caused gum problems, mouth ulcers, oral infections, mobile teeth, dead teeth, dental caries, tooth root resorption, disorderly arrangement of teeth and tooth loss, with its associated pain, it said.
No comments:
Post a Comment