By Asmahanim Amir
Pictures by Ikhwan Hashim

PUTRAJAYA, 19 June 2017 – Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), through the UKM Medical Centre (UKMMC), signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with four public universities, to establish a Public University Teaching Hospital Consortium (KHUAM), recently.

Minister of Higher Education, Dato’ Seri Idris Jusoh said the initiative to establish KHUAM is an initial step that will help the country’s health sector flourish.

“The establishment of this consortium will be a platform to coordinate an integrated and a more aggressive effort to improve health care services.

“Besides that, the re-branding of the University Teaching Hospital will enable them to  explore new fields such as medical tourism, marketing and promotion of a healthy living environment which could lead to the reduction of costs, sharing of resources, coordination of patient data or expertise, increased physician incubator and increased collaborative research and innovation,” he said at the signing ceremony.

He said with the MoA, the transformation into an innovative governance by all University Teaching Hospital is expected to create at least over 30 percent savings to purchase drugs and medical equipment.

Meanwhile, UKM Vice-Chancellor Prof Dato’ Seri Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali said the establishment of the consortium is a brilliant step because University Teaching Hospitals can share expertise in the medical field.

The four other teaching hospitals involved are Universiti Malaya Medical Centre, Universiti Sains Malaysia Hospital, International Islamic University Malaysia Medical Centre and Universiti Teknologi MARA Teaching Hospital.

At the ceremony, six universities which offered medical programmes, but did not have a teaching hospital also signed the pledge.

They are Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.