The clinic, which cost about RM300,000 to set up, is owned by the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak's subsidiary company Unimas-Medic Sdn Bhd, in collaboration with Sebayor Medical Centre.
It boasts family medicine specialists and public health specialists from the university’s Medicine and Health Science Faculty to ensure that all clinical and management services are delivered according to guidelines and rules stipulated under the Private Facility and Health Care 1998 Act.
Unimas Holdings Sdn Bhd Board of Directors’ chairman Datuk Peter Minos said facilities in the clinic included two consultation rooms, in-house pharmacy, and a treatment room.
Cases which needed specialists’ attention and follow-up treatments, such as blood, ultrasound, and x-rays, would be referred to Sebayor Medical Centre, government or private hospitals.
“We are confident that Klinik Unimas Sebayor is the best clinic in Kota Samarahan District in terms of facilities, doctors and specialists’ services. People living in and around here now have access to quality and comprehensive primary care treatment.”
He also pointed out that one of its objectives was to generate income for Unimas. It would also serve as a training ground for medical students and family medicine undergraduates, starting next year.
“This will give opportunity to doctors and specialists to practise, and hopefully they can get some unique cases for research projects.”
Unimas’ vice chancellor Professor Datuk Dr Khairuddin Abdul Hamid, who officially launched the clinic yesterday, said Unimas had always wanted to be part of the development taking place in Kota Samarahan and to contribute its expertise to the society.
The university was now eyeing setting up a teaching hospital inside its campus, like those in Universiti Malaysia, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).
“With the establishment of this hospital, we can also provide training to doctors from the Ministry of Health and help produce more specialists. Our initial proposal is to have 600 beds, but due to budget constraint we have reduced it to 400 beds. If we can have the funding, construction will take about two years.”
He acknowledged that the establishment of Sebayor Medical Centre and Klinik Unimas Sebayor would be platforms for medical experts to practise and eventually reduce brain drain. Resignations of medical experts, he admitted, would be a loss to the
university.
On another matter, he said Unimas produced an average of 80 doctors annually, and the number was increasing each passing year. Unimas also does produce specialist doctors through its Masters in Public Health programme.
Klinik Unimas Sebayor operates from 9am to 9pm on Mondays to Fridays. Its operating hours on Saturdays are from 9am to 1pm. It is closed on Sundays and public holidays.
Extracted from the Borneo Post.
