KUCHING: Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg has stressed the need to increase anaesthesia care delivery to keep up with developments in surgical and perioperative medicine.
He said that failure to do so could have serious consequences and limit people’s access to safe surgical healthcare.
“As of July 2023, there are 1,411 registered specialists in anaesthesiology and critical care in the National Specialist Register of Malaysia, a significant increase from 441 in 2013.
“However, to achieve a good level of healthcare, the World Association of Anesthetists recommends having at least five anesthesiologists per 100,000 residents.
“Currently, the ratio of anaesthesiologists to the population in Australia is 1:9000, and in the UK, it is 1:5000,” he said during the opening ceremony of the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia’s (AMM) Malaysian Society of Anaesthesiologists (MSA) & College of Anaesthesiologists (CoA) Annual Scientific Congress here.
“The World Federation of Society of Anaesthesiologists recommends a minimum of five physician anaesthesia providers per 100,000 population to achieve reasonable healthcare.
“The Medical Development Division of the Ministry of Health estimates a target of 1 to 20,000 specialists in anesthesiology and critical care by 2025 and 1 to 18,000 by 2030.
“In light of this, the greatest challenge in the coming decade is to train more specialists to meet the increasing demand for anaesthesia care,” he added on Friday (Aug 4).
On a related note, he also commended the MSA and CoA for their successful organisation of the Global Surgery Initiatives (GSI).
On March 12 to 19, he said the MSA and CoA, together with doctors from Subang Jaya Medical Centre, joined hands for the GSI, a first-of-its-kind Public-Private Partnership and corporate social relations initiative that aims to provide access to safe and affordable surgical and anaesthesia care in underserved areas in Malaysia.
“The chosen hospital was Sri Aman Hospital, and this was considered one of the first few corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects locally where surgeons, anaesthesiologists, nurses, and other allied healthcare professionals from the private sector joined forces to work together with the public health system to identify district hospitals where the need for surgical services has not been completely met.
“A total of 37 patients were successfully operated and the GSI at Sri Aman Hospital was considered a success.”
In addition, he said another global surgery was also carried out at Miri Hospital from July 24 to 28 where a total 31 surgeries were successfully performed.
“Over the years, we have seen an increasing number of trained and qualified anaesthesiologists who are able to deliver safe anaesthesia services in the country, extending to the remote parts, for example, in interior Sarawak, bringing surgical and perioperative healthcare to all Malaysians.
“This is largely due to the tenacity and perseverance of your predecessors in anaesthesia, who had the vision to establish specialty and subspecialty training programmes and formed and engaged professional bodies to develop the specialties to look after your interests and welfare,” said Abang Johari.
