Medical students welcomed to do training with ATM

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Zulkifeli officiating at the Asia-Pacific Military Health Exchange 2016 (APMHE16) in Kuantan. — Bernama photo

Zulkifeli officiating at the Asia-Pacific Military Health Exchange 2016 (APMHE16) in Kuantan. — Bernama photo

KUANTAN: Medical students are welcomed to do their housemanship training programme at three royal military hospitals and its 73 armed forces medical centres nationwide.

Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) chief General Tan Sri Zulkifeli Mohd Zin said these medical services, which handled cases involving army personnel, their extended families and army veterans, would give them a great opportunity to learn and improving their skills.

“We do not open our medical centres to the public due to financial constrains, but we do accept emergency cases involving nearby public.

“We also participate in a lot of community projects, locally and internationally.

“This is why we do not mind to bring them (medical students) in for housemanship training, but to employ them is a different issue as we need a budget,” he said after officiating at the Asia-Pacific Military Health Exchange 2016 (APMHE16) here, yesterday.

Themed ‘Global health inter-operability’, the five-day conference was co-hosted by the Malaysian ATM’s Health Services Division (MAFHQ) and United States Pacific Command Surgeon’s Office (US PACOM), involving 500 military medicine practitioners from 28 countries.

Zulkifeli also said the armed forces hospitals and medical centres are well equipped which enabled the hospitals to be used as training hospitals by the Medicine and Defence Health Faculty of National Defence University.

“I also like to share that we are also being approached by the Timur Leste Armed Forces to help them develop their health services. We have met several times to discuss on the matter and currently they had sent their veterans to our hospitals,” he said.

Zulkifeli also noted that ATM was considering to renovate or re-build its oldest hospital in Terendak, Melaka which has been in operation since the British era.

“We have a few operation theatres and dental services there and we want to improve the infrastructure,” he said, adding, however that ATM needed to think outside the box on how to finance the project.

On the conference, Zulkifeli said it was to discuss issues relating to global health, such as natural disasters, infectious diseases and preventive and interventional measures to manage the consequences.

“The participants are able to experience the latest medical technology in areas of maritime medicine, battlefield medicine, infectious disease and aviation medicine,” he added. — Bernama