Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) chief General 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 improve their skills.
“We do not open our medical centres to the public due to financial constraints, but we do accept emergency cases involving the 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 the Asia-Pacific Military Health Exchange 2016 (APMHE16) here, today.
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 were well equipped and could be used as training hospitals by the Medicine and Defence Health Faculty of the National Defence University.
“I 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 the matter and currently they have 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, Malacca 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 diseases and aviation medicine,” he added.