KUALA TERNGGANU: Community leaders have been encouraged to look into setting up a 1Malaysia rehabilitation centre (PR1M) at their respective areas.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the facility would be a convenience for patients undergoing rehabilitation for stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney disease, and ease congestion at hospitals, clinics and health centres.
“PR1M is a community-based rehabilitation centre set up on the initiative of community leaders.
“The community leaders would see to it that it is equipped with the necessary facilities, while the health ministry would provide the staff and specialist,” he told reporters after visiting the country’s first PR1M at Seberang Takir near here yesterday.
He said the PR1M was a good blue ocean strategy because it encouraged closer cooperation between the ministry and community.
“We want our services to return to the community or home, where doctors from the hospital together with Welfare Department staff and volunteers would come to the PR1M or patient’s home to provide treatment,” he said.
Meanwhile, Seberang Takir assemblyman Datuk Ahmad Razif AbdulRazif said in his address that the mission of the PR1M was to facilitate the community’s accessibility to rehabilitation.
The Seberang Takir centre started operating in April last year and was officially opened by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on May 1. —Bernama