PUTRAJAYA: Five teaching universities in the country today signed the Public University Teaching Hospital Consortium (KHUAM) Memorandum of Agreement in a bid to create effective and efficient knowledge, expertise and facility sharing among the universities.
The teaching universities were Universiti Malaysia Medical Center (UMMC), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center (UKMMC), Universiti Hospital Sains Malaysia (HUSM), Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia Medical Center (UIAMMC) and Universiti Teknologi Mara Teaching Hospital (HPUiTM).
Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh, who witnessed the signing, said the initiative will herald a new beginning in the field of medicine.
"The establishment of the consortium will provide an international platform for integrated initiatives and improvements in healthcare services.
"The measure will also pave the way to explore new fields in medicine such as medical tourism, marketing and rebranding of the teaching hospitals," he said.
Idris said the move will greatly reduce cost for medicine and machinery through sharing resources, patient data management system, increase in the number of specialists as well as greater collaboration in research and innovation.
The cost of medical drugs and equipment can be reduced up to 30 per cent through this consortium, Idris said.
"We also hope to create more specialists in various medical fields in the country.
"Currently, we have more than enough GPs (general practitioners), but we lack specialists. Through this move, we hope to produce more specialists in the country," he added.
Idris also targeted more than five per cent of income generation through medical insurance protection and medical tourism, adding that the move will make these universities more sustainable.
He said that on average, there are more than 3,000 medical students graduating from local universities every year.
As the first step in this measure, he said a working committee will be formed to look into areas of collaboration.
"We hope to see results as early as three months from now especially in the cost reduction," he added.
Beside from the five universities, six other local universities which offer medicine programmes but have yet own a hospital, also signed the 'KHUAM Aku Janji' pledge today.