Future challenges of geriatric care in Malaysia
Published on: Friday, August 05, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: Able Malaysians must prepare now for their own future ageing and one way is for professionals presently involved in geriatric care to help other states in Malaysia that don't have such services. Malaysian Society of Geriatric Medicine (MSGM), Prof Dr Philip Poi Jun Hua, who pioneered and now leads the Geriatrics Division of University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), Kuala Lumpur, said: "The biggest issue for health professionals is to be able to persevere in providing good services for older adults in Malaysia…because they themselves will grow old, and if they don't think about it now, when they get old, it is too late for them."
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He said those in the sunset of their lives, perhaps, won't benefit as much from the development of the services because by the time the services are developed, they (parents) would have passed on.Nevertheless, he added, it is important to have them in your memory "as to how they lived their old age, how they finished their lives, was it a dignified death or was it a death of suffering and discomfort because of the lack of services."So start sowing the seeds of interest and awareness so that health professionals will commit themselves to providing quality healthcare for those older than them and for their own old age when they get there." To another question, Prof Dr Poi said ideally, the ratio of doctor-patient in geriatric care should be 1:5,000.
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According to him, the aim is to have at least one or two geriatricians per state in the country."Which means there would be 26 geriatricians in 13 states but given a population of 29 million, the ratio is 1 per million as there are presently 29 geriatricians in Malaysia. But then many have gone into private practice," he lamented.
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He, however, said the ratio does not really matter as what is more important is the quality of the geriatrician in that he or she is able to get a multidisciplinary team of interested people – nurses, a physiotherapist, occupational therapist, the social worker and even the dietician, all working together with a common goal, i.e. to prevent disability in the older person."Disability is the thing that kills your hope and your desire to live comfortably. You cannot live comfortably because of your disability, so we have to avoid that," Prof Dr Poi said. He reiterated that one of the future challenges of geriatric care is not just a shortage of geriatricians. "Just having more doctors doesn't mean better quality care. You need more of everybody (nurse, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, etc) involved in the care of the elderly." Conference Organising Chairman Dr Peter Selestine thanked Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman and the State Government for their pledge of a substantial allocation for the running of the conference."This is how we do things in Sabah. It is a testament to the good leadership in our State when our CM announced the allocation without any hesitation during our courtesy call," he said to applause. "My gratitude also to State Health Director Dr Christina Rundi and Sabah Health Department for their success in securing a significant sponsorship from the Health Ministry to enable a large number of delegates from the government sector to participate. He also thanked Datuk Tony Wong, Datuk Susan Wong and Datuk James Hwong for their generous contributions. He noted the efforts of Past President of the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society (MPS), Datuk Nancy Ho and veteran social worker Ooi Kong Eow, Dr Nurul Izzati Azmin Mohd Yusof of the QEH Geriatric Unit, QEH I Director Dr Heric Corray and QEH Head of Department of Medicine, Datuk Dr Jayaram Menon.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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