Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : HILTON HOTEL, KUALA LUMPUR (K.L)
Tarikh/Date : 06/11/91
Tajuk/Title : THE 7TH ASEAN CONGRESS
OF ANAESTHESIOLOGISTS
It is a pleasure for me to be here among
Anaesthesiologists and I would like to thank the Organisers
of 7th ASEAN Congress of Anaesthesiologists for inviting my
wife and I tonight. I wish to take this opportunity to wel-
come all the distinguished members of the delegation and I
hope your stay in Malaysia will be fruitful and enjoyable.
2. I understand that the last Congress of
Anaesthesiologists was held in the Philippines in 1989.
Malaysia is honoured to host it this time around. Gath-
erings such as these will definitely go a long way towards
fostering good relations amongst your colleagues and there-
fore enhance professionalism among anaesthesiologists from
the ASEAN member countries. This will undoubtedly result in
making the voice of ASEAN countries heard around the world,
not only in the political and economic areas but also in the
field of medicine.
3. Malaysia has made substantial improvements in the pro-
vision of medical and health care facilities over the past
34 years since achieving independence in 1957. Positive
changes in important health status indicators reflect the
real situation. The Infant Mortality Rate has declined from
75.5 per 1000 live births in 1957 to 13.2 in 1989. For the
same period, while the Maternal Mortality Rate declined from
2.8 per 1000 live births to 0.2, Life Expectancy increased
from 55.8 to 69 years for male and 58.2 to 73.5 years for
female.
4. Since health services form an important aspect of our
social development plans, it is important to ensure that our
people have access to the latest modern health care facili-
ties so that they can enjoy a better standard of living.
This means among other things, that our planning has to be
flexible so as to be able to accommodate changing situation
and problems. In order to provide effective patient care
programmes we must be innovative and look for new ways to
improve medical and health services in our respective coun-
tries.
5. In response to greater expectations for accessibility
to medical care from the people and the need to increase the
coverage of medical services, the Ministry of Health in
Malaysia has been actively pursuing its programme of
decentralisation of specialist services. To start with,
Surgical, Medical and Obstetric & Gynaecological services
are now being provided in District Hospitals. It is the in-
tention of the Ministry of Health to provide sub-speciality
services in a planned manner in General Hospitals while con-
tinuing to develop the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital as the
National Referral Hospital.
6. This expansion and decentralisation of specialist ser-
vices has resulted in increasing demand for specialists in
the various medical specialities including
Anaesthesiologists in the Ministry of Health. The estab-
lishment of new private hospitals has further aggravated the
demand for anaesthesiologists.
7. In order to ensure that the expansion programme of the
Ministry of Health is not thwarted by the lack of
anaesthesiologists, Malaysia had started local post-graduate
training programmes in Anaesthesiology. At the same time,
our doctors have also been sent for post-graduate training
overseas.
8. Advancements in Anaesthesiology have made possible new
developments in patient treatment modalities. The develop-
ment of modern surgery to its present level of sophisti-
cation has been due to a very great extent on these
developemnts in Anaesthesiology. It has also contributed to
the development of intensive care traumatology and the
treatment of intractable chronic pain as well as of debili-
tating acute pain.
9. There have been rapid advances in the field of medi-
cine. Increasing sophistication in technology has resulted
in new developments and advances in biomedical engineering
and the development of sophisticated equipments such as the
new generation CT Scan, ultrasounds, laser, lithotripters
and magnetic resonance imagers. Malaysia has kept itself in
the mainstream of technology by acquiring these new equip-
ments and techniques for its hospitals. Realising that the
introduction of these new technologies would result in in-
creased cost of medical care, the Government has been ac-
quiring these new equipments in a judicious manner, always
taking into account their cost effectiveness and benefits to
patients.
10. As we move towards the year 2020 when Malaysia hope to
be a developed country, there is a need for us to contin-
ually address changing disease patterns. With rapid
industrialisation people's way of life will change. This
will require us to reexamine the role of our medical and
health services.
11. Since curative medicine is becoming increasingly expen-
sive, the government has been promoting the concept of pri-
mary prevention of diseases by focussing on healthy life
styles and habits. By encouraging people to practise
healthy life styles, the government hopes that our people
will be free from dieseases, such as AIDS, cancer and
chronic illnesses.
12. An individual is primarily responsible for his own well
being and by engaging in healthy life style practices, can
acquire positive habits towards achieving a healthy disease-
free life. The government on the other hand will assist the
individual in his endeavours by providing them with neces-
sary health and medical support facilities.
13. I hope this Congress will be succesful in achieving its
objectives of promoting and updating information and enhanc-
ing closer relations among Asean countries for the sake of a
better future for all member countries.
14. Lastly, I wish you every success in your deliberations
during the Congress.
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