Medical outreach programme giving beyond to the community

In the midst of its fundraising effort, UTAR Hospital also demonstrated its commitment towards serving the community by jointly organising the Medical Outreach Programme with M. Kandiah Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (MK FMHS) and the Academy for Silent Mentor (AFSM) from 9 to 10 October 2022 at T&CM Centre, Kampar. Klinik Kesihatan Kampar was also invited to participate in the medical outreach programme.

The opening ceremony was officiated by UTAR Chancellor Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik and Toh Puan Ena Ling; UTAR Education Foundation Board of Trustees Chairman Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Sak Cheng Lum and spouse; UTAR Hospital CEO Prof Lau Hui-Ping; UTAR Council Member Mr Hew Fen Yee; UTAR Vice President for Student Development and Alumni Relations Prof Dr Choong Chee Keong; Medical Officer from Kampar Hospital Dr Ahmad Fahmi bin Rashid Redza; T&CM Centre Director Assoc Prof Dr Te Kian Keong; UTAR MK FMHS Clinical Professor and Chairman and Founding Director of AFSM Prof Dr Chin Kin Fah; Organising Chairperson and Department of Surgery Head Dr Yan Naing Soe and staff.

The objectives of the medical outreach programme included, (1) to establish a mutual understanding and respect between patients and doctors in the community through empathy and giving, (2) to give back to society in the form of voluntary medical outreach services to the community in need through a sustainable giving back programme, and (3) to disseminate the concept of i-Silent Mentor to the community and gain support from the society in the form of body donation, volunteers, and funding, towards a self-sustainable ecosystem for the well-being of AFSM.

Also held in conjunction with UTAR’s 20th anniversary, the medical outreach programme aimed to offer free health screening services to people from the B40 group. Among the services included were Physical examination, Bio-physical measurements, Blood test, and pap smear, conducted by Klinik Kesihatan Kampar; Orthopaedic conducted by MK FMHS Clinical Assoc Prof Dr Simerjit Singh; Ultrasonography conducted by Department of Population Medicine Head Clinical Assistant Prof Dr Din Xin Jet; Endoscopy/Gastroscopy conducted by Prof Chin and assisted by his nurses, Ho Yoke Yee and Chlooe Tan from Gleneagles Hospital, Medical (endocrine) conducted by MK FMHS Clinical Assistant Prof Dr Kang Waye Hann, and Faecal occult blood test conducted by IMU final year students Heng Mian Jie and Gan Ching Earn. The medical outreach programme was conducted with the support of medical students from UTAR, UM, USM, UKM, UPM, IMU, Penang Medical College, National Defence Medical University of Malaysia, and Gleneagles Hospital.

Prof Chin said, “AFSM is an independent and not-for-profit medical education and research institute, launched by Tun Dr Ling in 2017. I am glad we are able to gather with Tun Dr Ling and UTAR to organise yet another meaningful outreach community programme. Through the Silent Mentor who donates bodies and their life stories for the betterment of medical education, training and research, our faculty members, instructors and students gain knowledge and soft skills to be humane doctors with the core value of truth, goodness and beauty. In AFSM, volunteerism is an important part. The faculty members and the students of the academy set forth many community outreach programmes in giving back to society and beyond. In addition, the medical outreach programme is supported by the academy’s volunteers from other disciplines as well.”

He added, “The medical outreach programme also offers a medium to serve the community, as means of giving back to society. The community receives healthcare in a timely manner for disease prevention and treatments. For the first time, this medical outreach programme has included conscious (without sedation) endoscopy to detect gastrointestinal illnesses. The procedure is safe because it is operated at the professional level and without sedation allows the patient to walk out immediately from the test. We have previously conducted three medical outreach programmes in East Malaysia as well and attracted about 500 registrations. We are also grateful to the Perak State Health Department for their support towards our medical outreach programme.”

Dr Yan, who is a consultant in AFSM’s Medical Advisory Committee also commented, “Last month we conducted another medical outreach programme in Penang with the National Cancer Society. Today we are conducting another medical outreach programme here at the T&CM Centre and we are glad to receive support from the team here. The arrangement and facility here enabled us to conduct the medical outreach programme more comfortably, save and secure; more interestingly, we are able to extend these services to 10pm.”

He further explained, “We began the publicity of the medical outreach programme a week before, and we have received more than 100 pre-registrations, but due to the time limitation, we had to limit the number of pre-registrations as well. However, the crowd today is satisfactory and mainly we are happy to be able to serve the community. We recruited medical students from various tertiary education institutions to make the student council diverse and multicultural. These students have undergone intensive clinical trainings, and have agreed to participate in our medical outreach programmes as a platform to acquire more knowledge and skill, while honing positive attitudes and instilling in them the spirit of volunteerism. Graduated students are still welcome to return as visiting alumni for research and medical education.”